he 


stamped  below 


Prairie  Edition 


The 
Winning  of  the  West 


By 

Theodore  Roosevelt 

Author  of  "American  Ideals,"  "  The  Wilderness  Hunter, 
"  Huntlng'Trips  »{  a  Ranchu?an,'!  v.tc. 


PART  I. 

The  Spread  of  English-Speaking 
Peoples 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
NEW  YORK  &  LONDON 
tlbe  "Knickerbocker  press 

1903 


COPYRIGHT,    1889 
BY 

c;  K  HVXA'M;*  j<^'£ 


THIS  BOOK 
IS  DEDICATED,  WITH  HIS  PERMISSION 

TO 

FRANCIS  PARKMAN 

TO  WHOM  AMERICANS  WHO  FEEL  A  PRIDE  IN  THE 

PIONEER   HISTORY  OF  THEIR  COUNTRY 

ARE  SO  GREATLY  INDEBTED 


"  O    strange    New    World   that   yit    wast    never 

young. 
Whose  youth   from   thee  by  gripin'   need   was 

wrung. 

Brown  foundlin'  o'  the  woods,  whose  baby-bed 
Was    prowled    roun'    by    the    Injun's    cracklin' 

tread, 
And  who  grew'st  strong  thru  shifts  an'  wants 

an'  pains, 
Nursed    by    stern    men    with    empires    in    their 

brains, 

Who  saw  in  vision  their  young  Ishmel  strain 
With  each  hard  hand  a  vassal  ocean's  mane ; 
Thou  skilled  by  Freedom  and  by  gret  events 
To  pitch  new  states  ez  Old  World  men  pitch 

tents, 

Thou  taught  by  fate  to  know  Jehovah's  plan, 
Thet  man's  devices  can't  unmake  a  man. 


Oh,  my  friends,  thank  your  God,  if  you  have  one, 

that  he 
'Twixt  the  Old  World  and  you  set  the  gulf  of  a 

sea, 
Be  strong-backed,  brown-handed,  upright  as  your 

pines, 
By  the  scale  of  a  hemisphere  shape  your  designs." 

— LOWELL. 


PREFACE 

MUCH  of  the  material  on  which  this  work 
is  based  is  tc  be  found  in  the  archives  of  the 
American  Government,  which  date  back  to 
1774,  when  the  first  Continental  Congress 
assembled.  The  earliest  sets  have  been 
published  complete  up  to  1777,  under  the 
title  of  "  American  Archives,"  and  will  be 
hereafter  designated  by  this  name.  These 
early  volumes  contain  an  immense  amount 
of  material,  because  in  them  are  to  be  found 
memoranda  of  private  individuals  and  many 
of  the  public  papers  of  the  various  colonial 
and  State  governments,  as  well  as  those  of 
the  Confederation.  The  documents  from 
1789  on — nc  longer  containing  any  papers 
of  the  separate  States — have  also  been  gath- 
ered and  printed  under  the  heading  of 
"  American  State  Papers  " ;  by  which  term 
they  will  be  hereafter  referred  to. 

The  mass  of  public  papers  coming  in  be- 
tween these  two  series,  and  covering  the 
period  extending  from  1776  to  1789,  have 
never  been  published,  and  in  great  part  have 
either  never  been  examined  or  else  have 
been  examined  in  the  most  cursory  manner. 
The  original  documents  are  all  in  the  De- 
partment of  State  at  Washington,  and  for 
convenience  will  be  referred  to  as  "  State 


8  PREP. -ICE 

Department  MSS.''  They  are  bound  in 
two  or  three  hundred  large  volumes ;  ex- 
actly how  many  I  cannot  say,  because, 
though  they  are  numbered,  yet  several  of 
the  numbers  themselves  contain  from  two 
or  three  to  ten  or  fifteen  volumes  apiece. 
The  volumes  to  which  reference  will  most 
often  be  made  are  the  following: 

No.   15.   Letters  of  Huntington. 

No.  16.  Letters  of  the  Presidents  of 
Congress. 

No.   18.  Letter-Book  B. 

No.  20.  Vol.  i.  Reports  of  Committees 
on  State  Papers. 

No.  27.  Reports  of  Committees  on  the 
War  Office.  1776  to  1778. 

No.  30.   Reports   of   Committees. 

No.  32.  Reports  of  Committees  of  the 
States  and  of  the  Week. 

No.  41.  Vol.  5.  Memorials  E.  F.  G. 
1776-1788. 

No.  41.  Vol.  5.  Memorials  K.  L.  1777- 
1789. 

No.  50.  Letters  and  papers  of  Oliver 
Pollock.  1777-1792. 

No.  51.  Vol.  2.  Intercepted  Letters. 
1779-1782. 

No.   56.   Indian  affairs. 

No.  71.   Vol.    i.     Virginia   State  Papers. 

No.   73.   Georgia    State    Papers. 

No.  81.  Vol.  2.  Report-  of  Secretary 
John  Jay. 

No.   1 20.  Vol.   2.     American   Letters. 


PREFACE  9 

No.  124.  Vol.  3.     Reports  of  Jay. 

No.  125.  Negotiation  Book. 

No.  136.  Vol.  i.  Reports  of  Board  of 
Treasury. 

No.  136.  Vol.  2.  Reports  of  Board  of 
Treasury. 

No.  147.  Vol.  2.  Reports  of  Board  of 
War. 

No.  147.  Vol.  5.  Reports  of  Board  of 
War. 

No.  147.  Vol.  6.  Reports  of  Board  of 
War. 

No.  148.  Vol.  i.  Letters  from  Board  of 
War. 

No.  149.  Vol.  i.  Letters  and  Reports 
from  B.  Lincoln,  Secretary  at  War. 

No.  149.  Vol.  2.  Letters  and  Reports 
from  B.  Lincoln,  Secretary  at  War. 

No.  149.  Vol.  3.  Letters  and  Reports 
from  B.  Lincoln,  Secretary  at  War. 

No.  150.  Vol.  i.  Letters  of  H.  Knox, 
Secretary  at  War. 

No.  150.  Vol.  2.  Letters  of  H.  Knox, 
Secretary  at  War. 

No.  150.  Vol.  3.  Letters  of  H.  Knox, 
Secretary  at  War. 

No.  152.  Vol.  n.  Letters  of  General 
Washington. 

No.  163.  Letters  of  Generals  Clinton, 
Nixon,  Nicola,  Morgan,  Harmar,  Muhlen- 
burg. 

No.  169.  Vol.  9.     Washington's  Letters. 

No.  180.  Reports  of  Secretary  of  Con- 
gress. 


to  PREFACE 

Besides  these  numbered  volumes,  the 
State  Department  contains  others,  such  as 
Washington's  letter-book,  marked  War  De- 
partment 1792,  '3,  '4,  '5.  There  are  also  a 
series  of  numbered  volumes  of  "  Letters  to 
Washington,"  Nos.  33  and  49  containing 
reports  from  Geo.  Rogers  Clark.  The  Jef- 
ferson papers,  which  are  likewise  preserved 
here,  are  bound  in  several  series,  each  con- 
taining a  number  of  volumes.  The  Madi- 
son and  Monroe  papers,  also  kept  here,  are 
not  yet  bound ;  I  quote  them  as  the  Madison 
MSS.  and  the  Monroe  MSS. 

My  thanks  arc  due  to  Mr.  W.  C.  Hamil- 
ton, Asst.  Librarian,  for  giving  me  every 
facility  to  examine  the  material. 

At  Nashville, "Tennessee,  I  had  access  to 
a  mass  of  original  matter  in  the  shape  of 
files  of  old  newspapers,  of  unpublished  let- 
ters, diaries,  reports,  and  other  manuscripts. 
I  was  given  every  opportunity  to  examine 
these  at  my  leisure,  and  indeed  to  take  such 
as  were  most  valuable  to  my  own  home. 
For  this  my  thanks  are  especially  due  to 
Judge  John  M.  Lea.  to  whom,  as  well  as 
to  my  many  other  friends  in  Nashville,  I 
shall  always  feel  under  a  debt  on  account 
of  the  unfailing  courtesy  with  which  I  was 
treated.  I  must  express  my  particular  ac- 
knowledgments to  Mr.  Lemuel  R.  Camp- 
bell. The  Nashville  manuscripts,  etc.,  of 
which  I  have  made  most  use  are  the  fol- 
lowing: 

The    Robertson    MSS.,    comprising    two 


PREFACE  ii 

large  volumes,  entitled  the  "  Correspond- 
ence, etc.,  of  Gen'l  James  Robertson,"  from 
1784  to  1814.  They  belong  to  the  library 
of  Nashville  University;  I  had  some  diffi- 
culty in  finding  the  second  volume  but 
finally  succeeded. 

The  Campbell  MSS.,  consisting  of  letters 
and  memoranda  to  and  from  different  mem- 
bers of  the  Campbell  family  who  were 
prominent  in  the  Revolution ;  dealing  for 
the  most  part  with  Lord  Dtmmore's  war, 
the  Cherokee  wars,  the  battle  of  King's 
Mountain,  land  speculations,  etc.  They  are 
in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Lemuel  R.  Camp- 
bell, who  most  kindly  had  copies  of  all 
the  important  ones  sent  me,  at  great  per- 
sonal trouble. 

Some  of  the  Sevier  and  Jackson  papers, 
the  original  MS.  diaries  of  Donelson  on 
the  famous  voyage  down  the  Tennessee  and 
up  the  Cumberland,  and  of  Benj.  Hawkins 
while  surveying  the  Tennessee  boundary, 
memoranda  of  Thos.  Washington,  Overtoil 
and  Dunham,  the  earliest  files  of  the  Knox- 
ville  Gazette,  from  1791  to  1795,  etc- 
These,  are  all  in  the  library  of  the  Tennessee 
Historical  Society. 

For  original  matter  connected  wil-h  Ken- 
tucky, I  am  greatly  indebted  to  Col.  Reuben 
T.  Durrett,  of  Louisville,  the  founder  of 
the  "  Filson  Club,"  which  has  done  such 
admirable  historical  work  of  late  years.  He 
allowed  me  to  work  at  my  leisure  in  his 
library,  the  most  complete  in  the  world  on 


12  PREFACE 

all  subjects  connected  with  Kentucky  his- 
tory. Among  other  matter,  he  possesses 
the  Shelby  MSS.,  containing  a  number  of 
letters  to  and  from,  and  a  dictated  autobi- 
ography of,  Isaac  Shelby;  MS.  journals  of 
Rev.  James  Smith,  during  two  tours  in  the 
western  country  in  1785  and  '95;  early  files 
of  the  "  Kentucke  Gazette  ";  books  owned 
by  the  early  settlers ;  papers  of  Boone,  and 
George  Rogers  Clark;  MS.  notes  on  Ken- 
tucky by  George  Bradford,  who  settled 
there  in  17/9;  MS.  copy  of  the  record  book 
of  Col.  John  Todd,  the  first  governor  of  the 
Illinois  country  after  Clark's  conquest ;  the 
McAfee  MSS.,  consisting  of  an  Account 
of  the  First  Settlement  of  Salt  River,  the 
Autobiography  of  Robert  McAfee,  and  a 
Brief  Memorandum  of  the  Civil  and  Nat- 
ural History  of  Kentucky:  MS.  autobi- 
ography of  Rev.  William  Hickman,  who 
visited  Kentucky  in  1776,  etc.,  etc. 

I  am  also  under  great  obligations  to  Col. 
John  Mason  Brown  of  Louisville,  another 
member  of  the  Filson  Club,  for  assistance 
rendered  me :  particularly  for  having  sent 
me  six  bound  volumes  of  MSS.,  containing 
the  correspondence  of  the  Spanish  Minister 
Gardoqui,  copied  from  the  Spanish  archives. 

At  Lexington  I  had  access  to  the  Breck- 
cnridge  MSS.,  through  the  kindness  of  Mr. 
Ethel'bert  D.  Warfield ;  and  to  the  Clay 
MSS.  through  the  kindness  of  Miss  Lu- 
cretia  Hart  Clay.  I  am  particularly  in- 
debted to  Miss  Clay  for  her  courtesy  in 


PREFACE  13 

sending  me  many  of  the  most  valuable  old 
Hart  and  Benton  letters,  depositions,  ac- 
counts, and  the  like. 

The  Blount  MSS.  were  sent  to  me  from 
California  by  the  Hon.  W.  D.  Stephens  of 
Los  Angeles,  although  I  was  not  personally 
known  to  him;  an  instance  of  courtesy  and 
generosity,  in  return  for  which  I  could  do 
nothing  save  express  my  sincere  apprecia- 
tion and  gratitude,  which  I  take  this  oppor- 
tunity of  publicly  repeating. 

The  Gates  MSS.,  from  which  I  drew 
some  important  facts  not  hitherto  known 
concerning  the  King's  Mountain  campaign, 
are  in  the  library  of  the  New  York  His- 
torical Society. 

The  Virginia  State  Papers  have  recently 
been  published,  and  are  now  accessible  to 
all. 

Among  the  most  valuable  of  the  hitherto 
untouched  manuscripts  which  I  have  ob- 
tained are  the  Haldimand  papers,  preserved 
in  the  Canadian  archives  at  Ottawa.  They 
give,  for  the  first  time,  the  British  and  In- 
dian side  of  all  the  northwestern  fighting; 
including  Clark's  campaigns,  the  siege  of 
Boonesborough,  the  battle  of  the  Blue  Licks, 
Crawford's  defeat,  etc.  The  Canadian 
archivist,  Mr.  Douglass  Brymner,  furnished 
me  copies  of  all  I  needed  with  a  prompt 
courtesy  for  which  I  am  more  indebted  than 
I  can  well  express. 

I  have  been  obliged  to  rely  mainly  on 
these  collections  of  early  documents  as  my 


I4  PREFACE 

authorities,  especially  -for  that  portion  of 
western  history  prior  to  1783.  Excluding 
the  valuable,  but  very  brief,  and  often  very 
inaccurate,  sketch  which  Filson  wrote  down 
as  coining  from  Boone,  there  are  no  printed 
histories  of  Kentucky  earlier  than  Mar- 
shall's, in  1812;  while  the  first  Tennessee 
history  was  Hay  wood's,  in  1822.  Both 
Marshall  and  I  laywood  did  excellent  work ; 
the  former  was  an  able  writer,  the  latter  was 
a  student,  and  (like  the  Kentucky  historian 
Mann  Butler)  a  sound  political  thinker, 
devoted  to  the  Union,  and  prompt  to  stand 
up  for  the  right.  But  both  of  them,  in  deal- 
ing with  the  early  history  of  the  country 
beyond  the  Alleghanies,  wrote  about  mat- 
ters that  had  happened  from  thirty  to  fifty 
years  before,  and  were  obliged  to  base  most 
of  their  statements  on  tradition  or  on  what 
the  pioneers  remembered  in  their  old  age. 
The  later  historians,  for  the  most  part, 
merely  follow  these  two.  In  consequence, 
the  mass  of  original  material,  in  the  shape 
of  official  reports  and  contemporary  letters, 
contained  in  the  Haldimand  MSS.,  the 
Campbell  MSS..  the  McAfee  MSS..  the 
Gardoqui  MSS.,  the  State  Department 
MSS.,  the  Virginia  State  Papers,  etc.,  not 
onlv  cast  a  flood  of  new  light  upon  this 
early  history,  but  necessitate  its  being  en- 
tirely re-written.  For  instance,  they  give 
an  absolutely  new  aspect  to.  and  in  many 
cases  completely  reverse,  the  current  ac- 
counts of  all  the  Indian  fighting,  both 


PREFACE  1.5 

against  the  Cherokees  and  the  Northwest- 
ern tribes;  they  give  for  the  firs':  time  a 
clear  view  of  frontier  diplomacy,  of  the  in- 
trigues with  the  Spaniards,  and  even  of  the 
mode  of  life  in  the  backwoods,  and  of  the 
workings  of  the  civil  government.  It  may 
be  mentioned  that  the  various  proper  names 
are  spelt  in  so  many  different  ways  that  it  is 
difficult  to  know  which  to  choose.  Even 
Clark  is  sometimes  spelt  Clarke,  while  Boone 
was  apparently  indifferent  as  to  whether  his 
name  should  or  should  not  contain  the  h'nal 
silent  e.  As  for  the  original  Indian  titles, 
it  is  often  quite  impossible  to  give  them 
even  approximately ;  the  early  writers  often 
wrote  the  same  Indian  words  in  such  differ- 
ent ways  that  they  bear  no  resemblance 
whatever  to  one  another. 

In  conclusion  I  would  say  that  it  has  been 
to  me  emphatically  a  labor  of  love  to  write 
of  the  great  deeds  of  the  border  people.  I 
am  not  blind  to  their  manifold  shortcom- 
ings, nor  yet  am  I  ignorant  of  their  many 
strong  and  good  qualities.  For  a  number 
of  years  I  spent  most  of  my  time  on  the 
frontier,  and  lived  and  worked  like  any 
other  frontiersman.  The  wild  country  in 
which  we  dwelt  and  across  which  we  wan- 
dered was  in  the  far  west ;  and  there  were 
of  course  many  features  in  which  the  life 
of  a  cattleman  on  the  Great  Plains  and 
among  the  Rockies  differed  from  that  led 
by  a  backwoodsman  in  the  Alleghany  for- 
ests a  century  before.  Yet  the  points  of 


16  PREFACE 

resemblance  were  far  more  numerous  and 
striking.  We  guarded  our  herds  of  brand- 
ed cattle  and  shaggy  horses,  hunted  bear, 
bison,  elk,  and  deer,  established  civil  gov- 
ernment, and  put  down  evil-doers,  white 
and  red,  on  the  banks  of  the  Little  Missouri 
and  among  the  wooded,  precipitous  foot- 
hills of  the  Bighorn,  exactly  as  did  the  pio- 
neers who  a  hundred  years  previously  built 
their  log-cabins  beside  the  Kentucky  or  in 
the  valleys  of  the  Great  Smokies.  The 
men  who  have  shared  in  the  fast  vanishing 
frontier  life  of  the  present  feel  a  peculiar 
sympathy  with  the  already  long-vanished 
frontier  life  of  the  past. 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 
SAGAMORE  HILL;  May,  1889. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  SPREAD  OF  THE  ENGLISH- 
SPEAKING    PEOPLES 17 

II.  THE    FRENCH    OF    THE    OHIO 

VALLEY,  1763-1775 47 

III.  THE  APPALACHIAN   CONFEDER- 
ACIES,   1765-1775 71 

IV.  THE     ALGONQUINS     OF     THE 

NORTHWEST,,    1769-1774 96 

V.  THE    BACKWOODSMEN    OF   THE 

ALLEGIIANIES,     1769-1774. . .    132 
VI.  BOONE  AND  THE  LONG  HUNT- 
ERS  ;  AND  THEIR  HUNTING  IN 
NO-MAN'S-LAND,    1769-1774,  172 
VII.  SEVIER,    ROBERTSON,    AND   THE 
WATAUGA    COMMONWEALTH, 

1769-1774     210 

VIII.  LORD  DUNMORE'S  WAR,  1774. .  244 

APPENDICES  : 

APPENDIX  A — To  CHAPTER  IV.  .  273 

APPENDIX  B — -To  CHAPTER  V. .  .  280 

APPENDIX  C — To  CHAPTER  VI..  283 

APPENDIX  D — To  CHAPTER  VI.  .  285 

APPENDIX  E — To  CHAPTER  VII.  286 


THE  WINNING  OF  THE  WEST 
CHAPTER  I 

THE     SPREAD     OF     THE     ENGLISH-SPEAKING 
PEOPLES 


DURING  the  past  three  centuries  the 
spread  of  the  English-speaking  peo- 
ples   over   the    world's    waste    spaces 
has  been  not  only  the  most  striking  feature 
in  the  world's  history,  but  also  the  event  of 
all  others  most   far-reaching  in  its  effects 
and  its  importance. 

The  tongue  which  Bacon  feared  to  use 
in  his  writings,  lest  they  should  remain  for- 
ever unknown  to  all  but  the  inhabitants  of 
a  relatively  unimportant  insular  kingdom, 
is  now  the  speech  of  two  continents.  The 
Common  Law  which  Coke  jealously  upheld 
in  the  southern  half  of  a  single  European 
island,  is  now  the  law  of  the  land  through- 
out the  vast  regions  of  Australasia,  and  of 
America  north  of  the  Rio  Grande.  The 
names  of  the  plays  that  Shakespeare  wrote 
are  household  words  in  the  mouths  of 
mighty  nations,  whose  wide  domains  were 
to  him  more  unreal  than  the  realm  of 
Prester  John.  Over  half  the  descendants 

17 


1 8  THE  ll'INXING  OF 

of  their  fellow  countrymen  of  that  day  now 
dwell  in  lands  which,  when  these  three  En- 
glishmen were  born,  held  not  a  single  white 
inhabitant;  the  race  which,  when  they  were 
in  their  prime,  was  hemmed  in  between  the 
North  and  the  Irish  seas,  to-day  holds  sway 
over  worlds,  whose  endless  coasts  are 
washed  by  the  waves  of  the  three  great 
oceans. 

There  have  been  manv  other  races  that  at 
one  time  or  another  had  their  great  periods 
of  race  expansion — as  distinguished  from 
mere  conquest, — but  there  has  never  been 
another  whose  expansion  has  been  either 
so  broad  or  so  rapid. 

At  one  time,  many  centuries  ago,  it 
seemed  as  if  the  (lermanic  peoples,  like 
their  Celtic  foes  and  neighbors,  would  be 
absorbed  into  the  all-conquering  Roman 
power,  and,  merging  their  identity  in  that 
of  the  victors,  would  accept  their  law,  their 
speech,  and  th<'ir  habits  of  thought.  But 
this  danger  vanished  forever  on  the  day  of 
the  slaughter  by  the  Teutobnrger  \Vald, 
when  the  legions  of  Yarns  were  broken  by 
the  rush  of  Hermann's  wild  warriors. 

Two  or  three  hundred  years  later  the 
Germans,  no  longer  on  the  defensive,  them- 
selves went  forth  from  their  marshy  forests 
conquering  and  to  conquer.  For  century 
after  century  they  swarmed  out  of  the  dark 
woodland  east  of  the  Rhine,  and  north  of 
the  Danube:  and  as  their  force  spent  itself, 
the  movement  was  taken  up  by  their  breth- 


THE   WEST  19 

ren  who  dwelt  along  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic 
and  the  North  Atlantic.  From  the  Volga 
to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  from  Sicily  to 
Britain,  every  land  in  turn  bowed  to  the 
warlike  prowess  of  the  stalwart  sons  of 
Odin.  Rome  and  Novgorod,  the  imperial 
city  of  Italy  as  well  as  the  squalid  capital 
of  Muscovy,  acknowledged  the  sway  of 
kings  of  Teutonic  or  Scandinavian  blood. 

In  most  cases,  however,  the  victorious 
invaders  merely  intruded  themselves  among 
the  original  and  far  more  numerous  owners 
of  the  land,  ruled  over  them,  and  were  ab- 
sorbed by  them.  This  happened  to  both 
Teuton  and  Scandinavian ;  to  the  descend- 
ants of  Alaric,  as  well  as  to  the  children 
of  Rurik.  The  Dane  in  Ireland  became  a 
Celt;  the  Goth  of  the  Iberian  peninsula  be- 
came a  Spaniard ;  Frank  and  Norwegian 
alike  were  merged  into  the  mass  of  Ro- 
mance-speaking Gauls,  who  themselves 
finally  grew  to  be  called  by  the  names  of 
their  masters.  Thus  it  came  about  that 
though  the  German  tribes  conquered  Eu- 
rope they  did  not  extend  the  limits  of  Ger- 
many nor  the  sway  of  the  German  race. 
On  the  contrary,  they  strengthened  the 
hands  of  the  rivals  of  the  people  from 
whom  they  sprang.  They  gave  rulers — 
kaisers,  kings,  barons,  and  knights — to  all 
the  lands  they  overran ;  here  and  there  they 
imposed  their  own  names  on  kingdoms  and 
principalities — as  in  France,  Normandy, 
Burgundy,  and  Lombardy ;  they  grafted  the 


20 


THE   WINNING  OF 


feudal  system  on  the  Roman  jurisprudence, 
and  interpolated  a  few  Teutonic  words  in 
the  Latin  dialects  of  the  peoples  they  had 
conquered ;  but,  hopelessly  outnumbered, 
they  were  scon  lost  in  the  mass  of  their 
subjects,  and  adopted  from  them  their  laws, 
their  culture,  and  their  language.  As  a  re- 
sult, the  mixed  ra:es  of  the  south — the  Latin 
nations  as  they  are  sometimes  called— 
strengthened  by  the  infusion  of  northern 
blood,  sprang  anew  into  vigorous  life,  and 
became  for  the  time  being  the  leaders  of  the 
European  world. 

There  was  but  one  land  whereof  the  win- 
ning made  a  lasting  addition  to  Germanic 
soil ;  but  this  land  was  destined  to  be  of 
more  importance  in  the  future  of  the  Ger- 
manic peoples  than  all  their  continental 
possessions,  original  and  acquired,  put  to- 
gether. The  day  when  the  keels  of  the 
low-Dutch  sea-thieves  first  grated  on  the 
British  coast  was  big  with  the  doom  of 
many  nations.  There  sprang  up  in  con- 
quered southern  Britain,  when  its  name  had 
been  significantly  changed  to  England,  that 
branch  of  the  Germanic  stock  which  was  in 
the  end  to  grasp  almost  literally  world-wide 
power,  and  by  its  over-shadowing  growth 
to  dwarf  into  comparative  insignificance  all 
its  kindred  folk.  At  the  time,  in  the  gen- 
eral wreck  of  the  civilized  world,  the  ma- 
king of  England  attracted  but  little  atten- 
tion. Men's  eyes  were  riveted  on  the  em- 
pires conquered  by  the  hosts  of  Alaric, 


THE  WEST  21 

Theodoric,  and  Clovis,  not  on  the  swarm  of 
little  kingdoms  and  earldoms  founded  by 
the  nameless  chiefs  who  led  each  his  band 
of  hard-rowing,  hard-fighting  henchmen 
across  the  stormy  waters  of  the  German 
Ocean.  Yet  the  rule  and  the  race  of  Goth, 
Frank,  and  Burgund  have  vanished  from 
off  the  earth;  while  the  sons  of  the  un- 
known Saxon,  Anglian,  and  Friesic  war- 
riors now  hold  in  their  hands  the  fate  of  the 
coming  years. 

After  the  great  Teutonic  wanderings 
were  over,  there  came  a  long  lull,  until, 
with  the  discovery  of  America,  a  new  period 
of  even  vaster  race  expansion  began.  Du- 
ring this  lull  the  nations  of  Europe  took  on 
their  present  shapes.  Indeed,  the  so-called 
Latin  nations — the  French  and  Spaniards, 
for  instance — may  be  said  to  have  been  born 
after  the  first  set  of  migrations  ceased. 
Their  national  history,  as  such,  does  not 
really  begin  until  about  that  time,  whereas 
that  of  the  Germanic  peoples  stretches  back 
unbroken  to  the  days  when  we  first  hear  of 
their  existence.  It  would  be  hard  to  say 
which  one  of  half  a  dozen  races  that  ex- 
isted in  Europe  during  the  early  centuries 
of  the  present  era  should  be  considered  as 
especially  the  ancestor  of  the  modern 
Frenchman  or  Spaniard.  When  the  Ro- 
mans conquered  Gaul  and  Iberia  they  did 
not  in  any  place  drive  out  the  ancient  own- 
ers of  the  soil ;  they  simply  Romanized 
them,  and  left  them  as  the  base  of  the  popu- 


22 


THE  WINNING  OP 


lation.  By  the  Prankish  and  Visigothic  in- 
vasions another  strain  of  blood  was  added, 
to  be  speedily  absorbed ;  while  the  invaders 
took  the  language  of  the  conquered  people, 
and  established  themselves  as  the  ruling 
class.  Thus  the  modern  nations  who 
sprang  from  this  mixture  derive  portions 
of  their  governmental  system  and  general 
policy  from  one  race,  most  of  their  blood 
from  another,  and  their  language,  law,  and 
culture  from  a  third. 

The  English  race,  on  the  contrary,  has  a 
perfectly  continuous  history.  \Yhcn  Al- 
fred reigned,  the  English  already  had  a 
distinct  national  being;  when  Charlemagne 
reigned,  the  French,  as  we  use  the  term 
to-day,  had  no  national  being  whatever. 
The  Germans  of  the  mainland  merely  over- 
ran the  countries  that  lay  in  their  path. ;  but 
the  sea-rovers  who  won  England  to  a  great 
extent  actually  displaced  the  native  Britons. 
The  former  were  absorbed  by  the  subject- 
races;  the  latter,  on  the  contrary,  slew  or 
drove  off  or  assimilated  the  original  inhab- 
itants. I'nlike  all  the  other  Germanic 
swarm-,  the  English  took  neither  creed  nor 
custom,  neither  law  nor  speech,  f n  >m  their 
beaten  foes.  At  the  time  when  the  dvna^tv 
of  the  Capets  had  become  firmly  established 
at  Paris.  France  was  merely  part  of  a  coun- 
try where  Latinized  GnuU  and  Basques 
were  ruled  hv  Latinized  Franks.  Goth1;,  Bur- 
gun'K  and  Xormans ;  but  the  people  across 
the  Channel  then  showed  little  trace  of  Cel- 


THE   WEST 


23 


tic  or  Romance  influence.  It  would  be  hard 
to  say  whether  Vercingetorix  or  Caesar, 
Clovis  or  Syagrius,  has  the  better  right  to 
stand  as  the  prototype  of  a  modern  French 
general.  There  is  no  such  doubt  in  the 
other  case.  The  average  Englishman, 
American,  or  Australian  of  to-day  who 
wishes  to  recall  the  feats  of  power  with 
which  his  race  should  be  credited  in  the 
shadowy  dawn  of  its  history,  may  go  back 
to  the  half-mythical  glories  of  Hengist  and 
Horsa,  perhaps  to  the  deeds  of  Civilis  the 
Batavian,  or  to  those  of  the  hero  of  the 
Teutoburger  fight,  but  certainly  to  the  wars 
neither  of  the  Silurian  chief  Caractacus  nor 
of  his  conqueror,  the  after-time  Emperor 
Vespasian. 

Nevertheless,  when,  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, the  European  peoples  began  to  extend 
their  dominions  beyond  Europe,  England 
had  grown  to  differ  profoundly  from  the 
Germanic  countries  of  the  mainland.  A 
very  large  Celtic  element  had  been  intro- 
duced into  the  English  blood,  and,  in  ad- 
dition, there  had  been  a  considerable  Scandi- 
navian admixture.  More  important  still 
were  the  radical  changes  brought  by  the 
Norman  conquest ;  chief  among  them  the 
transformation  of  the  old  English  tongue 
into  the  magnificent  language  which  is  now 
the  common  inheritance  of  so  many  wide- 
spread peoples.  England's  insular  position, 
moreover,  permitted  it  to  work  out  its  own 
fate  comparatively  unhampered  by  the  pres- 


24  THE  WINNING  OF 

ence  of  outside  powers ;  so  that  it  devel- 
oped a  type  of  nationality  totally  distinct 
from  the  types  of  the  European  mainland. 

And  this  is  not  foreign  to  American  his- 
tory. The  vast  movement  by  which  this 
continent  was  conquered  and  peopled  cannot 
be  rightly  understood  if  considered  solely  by 
itself.  It  was  the  crowning  and  greatest 
achievement  of  a  series  of  mighty  move- 
ments, and  it  must  be  taken  in  connection 
with  them,  its  true  significance  will  be  lost 
unless  we  grasp,  however  roughly,  the  past 
race-history  of  the  nations  who  took  part 
therein. 

When,  with  the  voyages  of  Columbus  and 
his  successors,  the  great  period  of  extra- 
European  colonization  began,  various  na- 
tions strove  to  share  in  the  work.  Most  of 
them  had  to  plant  their  colonies  in  lands 
across  the  sea  ;  Russia  alone  was  by  her  geo- 
graphical position  enabled  to  extend  her 
frontiers  by  land,  and  in  consequence  her 
comparatively  recent  colonization  of  Siberia 
bears  some  resemblance  to  our  own  work  in 
the  western  I'nited  States.  The  other 
countries  of  Europe  were  forced  to  find  their 
outlets  for  conquest  and  emigration  beyond 
the  ocean,  and,  until  the  colonists  had  taken 
firm  root  in  their  new  homes  the  mastery  of 
the  seas  thus  became  a  matter  of  vital  conse- 
quence. 

Among  the  lands  beyond  the  ocean  Amer- 
ica was  the  first  reached  and  the  most  im- 


THE   WEST  25 

portant.  It  was  conquered  by  different 
European  races,  and  shoals  of  European 
settlers  were  thrust  forth  upon  its  shores. 
These  sometimes  displaced  and  sometimes 
merely  overcame  and  lived  among  the  na- 
tives. They  also,  to  their  own  lasting  harm, 
committed  a  crime  whose  shortsighted  folly 
was  worse  than  its  guilt,  for  they  brought 
hordes  of  African  slaves,  whose  descendants 
now  form  immense  populations  in  certain 
portions  of  the  land.  Throughout  the  con- 
tinent we  therefore  find  the  white,  red,  and 
black  races  in  every  stage  of  purity  and  in- 
termixture. One  result  of  this  great  tur- 
moil of  conquest  and  immigration  has  been 
that,  in  certain  parts  of  America,  the  lines 
of  cleavage  of  race  are  so  far  from  coincid- 
ing with  the  lines  of  cleavage  of  speech  that 
they  run  at  right  angles  to  them — as  in  the 
four  communities  of  Ontario,  Quebec, 
Hayti,  and  Jamaica. 

Each  intruding  European  power,  in  win- 
ning for  itself  new  realms  beyond  the  seas, 
had  to  wage  a  twofold  war,  overcoming  the 
original  inhabitants  with  one  hand,  and  with 
the  other  warding  off  the  assaults  of  the 
kindred  nations  that  were  bent  on  the  same 
schemes.  Generally  the  contests  of  the  lat- 
ter kind  were  much  the  most  important. 
The  victories  by  which  the  struggles  be- 
tween the  European  conquerors  themselves 
were  ended  deserve  lasting  commemoration. 
Yet,  sometimes,  even  the  most  important  of 
them,  sweeping  though  they  were,  were  in 


a6  THE  WINNING  OF 

parts  less  sweeping  than  they  seemed.  It 
would  be  impossible  to  overestimate  the  far- 
reaching  effects  of  the  overthrow  of  the 
French  power  in  America ;  but  Lower 
Canada,  where  the  fatal  blow  was  given, 
itself  suffered  nothing  but  a  political  con- 
quest, which  did  not  interfere  in  the  least 
with  the  growth  of  a  French  state  along 
both  sides  of  the  lower  St.  Lawrence.  In 
a  somewhat  similar  way  Dutch  communities 
have  held  their  own, and  indeed  have  sprung 
up  in  South  Africa. 

All  the  European  nations  touching  on  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  took  part  in  the  new  work, 
with  very  varying  success;  Germany  alone, 
then  rent  by  many  feuds,  having  no  share 
therein.  Portugal  founded  a  single  state, 
Brazil.  The  Scandinavian  nations  did  lit- 
tle; their  chief  colony  fell  under  the  control 
of  the  Dutch.  The  English  and  the  Span- 
iards were  the  two  nations  to  whom  the  bulk 
of  the  new  lands  fell ;  the  former  getting 
much  the  greater  portion.  The  conquests 
of  the  Spaniards  took  place  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  West  Indies  and  Mexico, 
Peru  and  the  limitless  grass  plains  of  what 
is  now  the  Argentine  Confederation. — all 
these  and  the  land-  lying  between  them  had 
been  conquered  and  colonized  bv  the  Span- 
iards before  there  was  a  single  settlement  in 
the  Xew  \Yorld,  and  while  the  ileeis  of  the 
Catholic  king  still  held  for  him  the  lordship 
of  the  ocean.  Then  the  cumbrous  Spanish 
vessels  succumbed  to  the  attacks  of  the  swift 


THE  WEST  27 

war-ships  of  Holland  and  England,  and  the 
sun  of  the  Spanish  world-dominion  set  as 
quickly  as  it  had  risen.  Spain  at  once 
came  to  a  standstill ;  it  was  only  here  and 
there  that  she  even  extended  her  rule  over  a 
few  neighboring  Indian  tribes,  while  she 
was  utterly  unable  to  take  the  offensive 
against  the  French,  Dutch,  and  English. 
But  it  is  a  singular  thing  that  these  vigorous 
and  powerful  new-comers,  who  had  so 
quickly  put  a  stop  to  her  further  growth, 
yet  wrested  from  her  very  little  of  what  was 
already  hers.  They  plundered  a  great  many 
Spanish  cities  and  captured  a  great  many 
Spanish  galleons,  but  they  made  no  great  or 
lasting  conquests  of  Spanish  territory.  Their 
mutual  jealousies,  and  the  fear  each  felt 
of  the  others,  were  among  the  main  causes 
of  this  state  of  things ;  and  hence  it  came 
about  that  after  the  opening  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  the  wars  they  waged  against 
one  another  were  of  far  more  ultimate  con- 
sequence than  the  wars  they  waged  against 
the  former  mistress  of  the  western  world. 
England  in  the  end  drove  both  France  and 
Holland  from  the  field ;  but  it  was  under 
the  banner  of  the  American  Republic,  not 
under  that  of  the  British  Monarchy,  that 
the  English-speaking  people  first  won  vast 
stretches  of  land  from  the  descendants  of 
the  Spanish  conquerors. 

The  three  most  powerful  of  Spain's  ri- 
vals waged  many  a  long  war  with  one  an- 
other to  decide  which  should  grasp  the 


28  THE   U'lXXlXG  OF 

sceptre  that  had  slipped  from  Spanish 
hands.  The  fleets  of  Holland  fought  with 
stubborn  obstinacy  to  wrest  from  England 
her  naval  supremacy;  but  they  failed,  and 
in  the  end  the  greater  portion  of  the  Dutch 
domains  fell  to  their  foes.  The  French 
likewise  began  a  course  of  conquest  and 
colonization  at  the  same  time  the  English 
did,  and  after  a  couple  of  centuries  of  ri- 
valry, ending  in  prolonged  warfare,  they 
also  succumbed.  The  close  of  the  most  im- 
portant colonial  contest  ever  waged  left  the 
French  without  a  foot  of  soil  on  the  North 
American  mainland ;  while  their  victorious 
foes  had  not  only  obtained  the  lead  in  the 
race  for  supremacy  on  that  continent,  but 
had  also  won  the  command  of  the  ocean. 
They  thenceforth  found  themselves  free  to 
work  their  will  in  all  seagirt  lands,  un- 
checked by  hostile  European  influence. 

Most  fortunately,  when  England  began 
her  career  as  a  colonizing  power  in  America, 
Spain  had  already  taken  possession  of  the 
populous  tropical  and  subtropical  regions, 
and  the  northern  power  was  thus  forced  to 
form  her  settlements  in  the  sparsely  peo- 
pled temperate  zone. 

It  is  of  vital  importance  to  remember  that 
the  English  and  Spanish  conquests  in 
America  differed  from  each  oilier  very 
much  as  did  the  original  conquests  which 
gave  rise  to  the  English  and  the-  Spanish 
nations.  The  English  had  exterminated  or 
assimilated  the  Celts  of  Britain,  and  they 


THE  WEST  29 

substantially  repeated  the  process  with  the 
Indians  of  America;  although  of  course  in 
America  there  was  very  little,  instead  of 
very  much,  assimilation.  The  Germanic 
strain  is  dominant  in  the  blood  of  the  aver- 
age Englishman,  exactly  as  the  English 
strain  is  dominant  in  the  blood  of  the  aver- 
age American.  Twice  a  portion  of  the  race 
has  shifted  its  home,  in  each  case  under- 
going a  marked  change,  due  both  to  out- 
side influence  and  to  internal  development; 
but  in  the  main  retaining,  especially  in  the 
last  instance,  the  general  race  characteris- 
tics. 

It  was  quite  otherwise  in  the  countries 
conquered  by  Cortes,  Pizarro,  and  their 
successors.  Instead  of  killing  or  driving 
off  the  natives  as  the  English  did,  the 
Spaniards  simply  sat  down  in  the  midst 
of  a  much  more  numerous  aboriginal  popu- 
lation. The  process  by  which  Central  and 
South  America  became  Spanish  bore  very 
close  resemblance  to  the  process  by  which 
the  lands  of  southeastern  Europe  were 
turned  into  Romance-speaking  countries. 
The  bulk  of  the  original  inhabitants  re- 
mained unchanged  in  each  case.  There 
was  little  displacement  of  population. 
Roman  soldiers  and  magistrates,  Roman 
merchants  and  handicraftsmen  were  thrust 
in  among  the  Celtic  and  Iberian  peoples, 
exactly  as  the  Spanish  military  and  civil 
rulers,  priests,  traders,  land-owners,  and 
mine-owners  settled  down  among  the  In- 


30  THE   WIXX1XG  OF 

dians  of  Peru  and  Mexico.  By  degrees, 
in  each  case,  the  many  learnt  the  language 
and  adopted  the  laws,  religion,  and  govern- 
mental system  of  the  few,  although  keep- 
ing certain  of  their  own  customs  and  habits 
of  thought.  Though  the  ordinary  Spaniard 
of  to-day  speaks  a  Romance  dialect,  he  is 
mainly  of  Celto-Iberian  blood;  and  though 
most  Mexicans  and  Peruvians  speak  Span- 
ish, yet  th.e  great  majority  of  them  trace 
their  descent  back  to  the  subjects  of  Mon- 
tezuma  and  the  Incas.  Moreover,  exactly 
as  in  Europe  little  ethnic  islands  of  Breton 
and  Basque  stock  have  remained  unaffected 
by  the  Romance  Hood,  so  in  America  there 
are  large  communities  where  the  inhabit- 
ants keep  unchanged  the  speech  and  the 
customs  of  their  Indian  forefathers. 

The  English-speaking  peoples  now  hold 
more  and  better  land  than  any  other  Ameri- 
can nationality  or  set  of  nationalities.  They 
have  in  their  veins  less  aboriginal  American 
blood  than  any  of  their  neighbors.  Yet 
it  is  note  worth  v  that  the  latter  have  tacitly 
allowed  them  to  arrogate  to  themselves  the 
title  of  "  Americans,"  whereby  to  designate 
their  distinctive  and  individual  nationality. 

So  much  for  the  difference  between  the 
way  in  which  the  English  and  the  way  in 
which  other  Europe-ail  nations  have  con- 
quered and  colonized.  But  there  have  been 
likewise  very  great  differences  in  the 
methods  and  courses  of  the  English-speak- 


THE  WEST  3I 

ing  peoples  themselves,  at  different  times 
and  in  different  places. 

The  settlement  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  throughout  most  of  their  extent, 
bears  much  resemblance  to  the  latter  settle- 
ment of  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  The 
English  conquest  of  India  and  even  the 
English  conquest  of  South  Africa  come  in 
an  entirely  different  category.  The  first 
was  a  mere  political  conquest,  like  the 
Dutch  conquest  of  Java  or  the  extension 
of  the  Roman  Empire  over  parts  of  Asia. 
South  Africa  in  some  respects  stands  by  it- 
self, because  there  the  English  are  con- 
fronted by  another  white  race  which  it  is  as 
yet  uncertain  whether  they  can  assimilate, 
and,  what  is  infinitely  more  important,  be- 
cause they  are  there  confronted  by  a  very 
large  native  population  with  which  they 
cannot  mingle,  and  which  neither  dies  out 
nor  recedes  before  their  advance.  It  is  not 
likely,  but  it  is  at  least  within  the  bounds 
of  possibility,  that  in  the  course  of  cen- 
turies the  whites  of  South  Africa  will  suf- 
fer a  fate  akin  to  that  which  befell  the 
Greek  colonists  in  the  Tauric  Chersonese, 
and  be  swallowed  up  in  the  overwhelming 
mass  of  black  barbarism. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  may  fairly  be  said 
that  in  America  and  Australia  the  English 
race  has  already  entered  into  and  begun  the 
enjoyment  of  its  great  inheritance.  When 
these  continents  were  settled  they  contained 


32 


THE  WINNING  OF 


the  largest  tracts  of  fertile,  temperate, 
thinly  peopled  country  on  the  face  of  the 
globe.  We  cannot  rale  too  highly  the  im- 
portance of  their  acquisition.  Their  suc- 
cessful settlement  was  a  feat  which  hy  com- 
parison utterly  dwarfs  all  the  European  wars 
of  the  last  two  centuries ;  just  as  the  impor- 
tance of  the  issues  at  stake  in  the  wars  of 
Rome  and  Carthage  completely  over- 
shadowed the  interests  for  which  the  var- 
ious contemporary  Greek  kingdoms  were  at 
the  same  time  striving. 

Australia,  which  was  much  less  impor- 
tant than  America,  was  also  won  and  set- 
tled with  far  less  difficulty.  The  natives 
were  so  few  in  number  and  of  >uch  a  low 
type,  that  they  practically  offered  no  re- 
sistance at  all,  being  but  little  more  hin- 
drance than  an  equal  number  of  ferocious 
beasts.  There  was  no  rivalry  whatever  by 
any  European  power,  because  the  actual 
settlement — not  the  mere  expatriation  of 
convicts — onlv  began  when  England  as  a 
result  of  her  struggle  with  Republican  and 
Imperial  France,  had  won  the  absolute  con- 
trol of  the  seas.  Unknown  to  themselves, 
Nelson  and  his  fellow  admirals  settled  the 
fate  of  Australia,  upon  which  they  probably 
never  wasted  a  thought.  Trafalgar  decided 
much  more  than  the  mere  question  whether 
Great  Britain  should  temporarily  share  the 
fate  that  so  soon  befell  Prussia:  for  in  all 
probability  it  decided  the  destiny  of  the 
island-continent  that  lay  in  the  South  Seas, 


THE  WEST  33 

The  history  of  the  English-speaking  race 
in  America  has  been  widely  different.  In 
Australia  there  was  no  fighting  whatever, 
whether  with  natives  or  with  other  for- 
eigners. In  America  for  the  past  two  cen- 
turies and  a  half  there  has  been  a  constant 
succession  of  contests  with  powerful  and 
warlike  native  tribes,  with  rival  European 
nations,  and  with  American  nations  of  Eu- 
ropean origin.  But  even  in  America  there 
have  been  wide  differences  in  the  \vay 
the  work  has  had  to  be  done  in  different 
parts  of  the  country,  since  the  close  of  the 
great  colonial  contests  between  England, 
France,  and  Spain. 

The  extension  of  the  English  westward 
through  Canada  since  the  war  of  the  Revo- 
lution has  been  in  its  essential  features 
merely  a  less  important  repetition  of  what 
has  gone  on  in  the  northern  United  States. 
The  gold  miner,  the  trans-continental  rail- 
way, and  the  soldier  have  been  the  pioneers 
of  civilization.  The  chief  point  of  differ- 
ence, which  \vas  but  small,  arose  from  the 
fact  that  the  whole  of  western  Canada  was 
for  a  long  time  under  the  control  of  the 
most  powerful  of  all  the  fur  companies,  in 
whose  employ  were  very  many  French  voy- 
ageurs  and  coureurs  des  bois.  From  these 
there  sprang  up  in  the  valleys  of  the  Red 
River  and  the  Saskatchewan  a  singular  race 
of  half-breeds,  with  a  unique  semi-civiliza- 
tion of  their  own.  It-  was  with  these  half- 
breeds,  and  not,  as  in  the  United  States,  with 


34 


THE   U'LVXIXG  OF 


the  Indians,  that  the  settlers  of  northwestern 
Canada  had  their  main  difficulties. 

In  what  now  forms  the  United  States, 
taking  the  country  as  a  whole,  the  foes  who 
had  to  be  met  and  overcome  were  very 
much  more  formidable.  The  ground  had 
to  be  not  only  settled  but  conquered,  some- 
times at  the  expense  of  the  natives,  often  at 
the  expense  of  rival  European  races.  As 
already  pointed  out  the  Indians  themselves 
formed  one  of  the  main  factors  in  deciding 
the  fate  of  the  continent.  They  were  never 
able  in  the  end  to  avert  the  white  conquest, 
but  they  could  often  delay  its  advance  for  a 
long  spell  of  years.  The  Iroquois,  for  in- 
stance, held  their  own  against  all  comers 
for  two  centuries.  Many  other  tribes 
stayed  for  a  time  the  oncoming  white  Hood, 
or  even  drove  it  back;  in  Maine  the  settlers 
were  for  a  hundred  years  confined  to  a  nar- 
row strip  of  sea-coast.  Against  the  Span- 
iards, there  were  even  lure  and  there  Indian 
nations  who  definitely  recovered  the  ground 
they  had  lost. 

When  the  whites  first  landed,  the  supe- 
riority and,  above  all,  the  novelty  of  their 
arms  gave  them  a  very  great  advantage. 
But  the  Indians  soon  became  accustomed  to 
the  new-comers'  weapons  and  style  of  war- 
fare. By  the  time  the  F.nglish  had  con- 
solidated the  Atlantic  colonies  under  their 
rule,  the  Indians  had  become  what  they 
have  remained  ever  since,  the  most  for- 
midable savage  foes  ever  encountered  by 


THE   WEST 


35 


colonists  of  European  stock.  Relatively  to 
their  numbers,  they  have  shown  themselves 
far  more  to  be  dreaded  than  the  Zulus  or 
even  the  Maoris. 

Their  presence  has  caused  the  process  of 
settlement  to  go  on  at  unequal  rates  of 
speed  in  different  places ;  the  flood  has  been 
hemmed  in  at  one  point,  or  has  been  forced 
to  flow  round  an  island  of  native  population 
at  another.  Had  the  Indians  been  as  help- 
less as  the  native  Australians  were,  the  con- 
tinent of  North  America  would  have  had 
an  altogether  different  history.  It  would 
not  only  have  been  settled  far  more  rapidly, 
but  also  on  very  different  lines.  Not  only 
have  the  red  men  themselves  kept  back  the 
settlements,  but  they  have  also  had  a  very 
great  effect  upon  the  outcome  of  the  strug- 
gles between  the  different  intrusive  Euro- 
pean peoples.  Had  the  original  inhabitants 
of  the  Mississippi  valley  been  as  numerous 
and  unwarlike  as  the  Aztecs,  de  Soto  would 
have  repeated  the  work  of  Cortes,  and  we 
would  very  possibly  have  been  barred  out 
of  the  greater  portion  of  our  present  do-  . 
main.  Had  it  not  been  for  their  Indian  ( 
allies,  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  the  I 
French  to  prolong,  as  they  did,  their  strug-  I 
gle  with  their  much  more  numerous  Eng-/ 
lish  neighbors. 

The  Indians  have  shrunk  back  before  our 
advance  only  after  fierce  and  dogged  resist- 
ance. They  were  never  numerous  in  the 
land,  but  exactly  what  their  numbers  were 


-6  THE   fF/.VA7A"G  OP 

tj 

when  the  whites  first  appeared  is  impossible 
to  tell.  Probably  an  estimate  of  half  a  mill- 
ion for  those  within  the  limits  of  the  present 
United  Stales  is  not  far  wrong;  but  in  any 
such  calculation  there  is  of  necessity  a  large 
clement  of  mere  rough  guess-work.  For- 
merly writers  greatly  over-estimated  their 
original  numbers,  counting  them  by  mill- 
ions. Now  it  is  the  fashion  to  go  to  the 
other  extreme,  and  even  to  maintain  that 
they  have  not  decreased  at  all.  This  last 
is  a  theory  that  can  only  be  upheld  on  the 
supposition  that  the  whole  does  not  con- 
sist of  the  sum  of  the  parts  ;  for  whereas 
we  can  check  off  on  our  fingers  the  tribes 
that  have  slightlv  increased,  we  can  enu- 
merate scores  that  have  died  out  almost  be- 
fore our  eyes.  Speaking  broadly,  they  have 
mixed  but  little  with  the  English  (as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  French  and  Spanish) 
invaders.  They  are  driven  back,  or  die  out, 
or  retire  to  their  own  reservations;  but 
they  are  not  often  assimilated.  Still,  on 
every  frontier,  there  is  alwavs  a  certain 
amount  of  assimilation  going  on,  much 
more  than  is  commonly  admitted  1 ;  and 

1  To  this  I  can  testify  of  my  own  knowledge  as 
regards  Montana.  Dakota,  and  -Minnesota.  The 
mixture  u.-ua!iy  take>  place  in  the  ranks  of  the 
population  where  individuals  lo.-e  all  trace  of  their 
ancestry  after  two  or  three  g<  neration^- ;  so  it  is 
often  honestly  ignored,  and  -onu-tinie-.  mention  of 
it  is  suppressed,  the  man  regarding  it  a-  a  taint. 
But  I  a!-' >  know  many  very  wealthy  old  frontiers- 
men who.-e  half-breed  children  are  now  being  edu- 


THE  WEST  37 

whenever  a  French  or  Spanish  community 
has  been  absorbed  by  the  energetic  Ameri- 
cans, a  certain  amount  of  Indian  blood  has 
been  absorbed  also.  There  seems  to  be  a 
chance  that  in  one  part  of  our  country,  the 
Indian  territory,  the  Indians,  who  are  con- 
tinually advancing  in  civilization,  will  re- 
main as  the  ground  element  of  the  popula- 
tion, like  the  Creoles  in  Louisiana,  or  the 
Mexicans  in  New  Mexico. 

The  Americans  when  they  became  a  na- 
tion continued  even  more  successfully  the 
work  which  they  had  begun  as  citizens  of 
the  several  English  colonies.  At  the  out- 
break of  the  Revolution  they  still  all  dwelt 
on  the  seaboard,  either  on  the  coast  itself 
or  along  the  banks  of  the  streams  flowing 
into  the  Atlantic.  When  the  fight  at  Lex- 
ington took  place  they  had  no  settlements 
beyond  the  mountain  chain  on  our  western 
border.  It  had  taken  them  over  a  century 
and  a  half  to  spread  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Alleghanies.  In  the  next  three  quarters 
of  a  century  they  spread  from  the  Alle- 
ghanies to  the  Pacific.  In  doing  this  they 
not  only  dispossessed  the  Indian  tribes,  but 
they  also  won  the  land  from  its  European 
owners.  Britain  had  to  yield  the  territory 
between  the  Ohio  and  the  Great  Lakes.  By 
a  purchase,  of  which  we  frankly  announced 

cated,  generally  at  convent  schools,  while  in  the 
Northwestern  cities  I  could  point  out  some  very 
charming  men  and  women,  in  the  best  society, 
with  a  strain  of  Indian  blood  in  their  veins. 


3 8  THE   WINNING  OP 

that  the  alternative  would  be  war,  we  ac- 
quired from  France  the  vast,  ill-defined  re- 
gion known  as  Louisiana.  From  the  Span- 
iards, or  from  their  descendants,  we  won 
the  lands  of  Florida,  Texas,  New  Mexico, 
and  California. 

All  these  lands  were  conquered  after  we 
had  become  a  power,  independent  of  every 
other,  and  one  within  our  own  borders; 
when  we  were  no  longer  a  loose  assem- 
blage of  petty  seaboard  communities,  each 
with  only  such  relationship  to  its  neighbor 
as  was  implied  in  their  common  subjection 
to  a  foreign  king  and  a  foreign  people. 
Moreover,  it  is  well  always  to  remember 
that  at  the  day  when  we  began  our  career 
as  a  nation  we  alreadv  differed  from  our 
kinsmen  of  Britain  in  blood  as  well  as  in 
name ;  the  word  American  already  had 
more  than  a  merely  geographical  significa- 
tion. Americans  belong  to  the  English  race 
only  in  the  sense  in  which  Englishmen  be- 
long to  the  (Jerman.  The  fact  that  no 
change  of  language  has  accompanied  the 
second  wandering  of  our  people,  from  Brit- 
ain to  America,  as  it  accompanied  their 
first,  from  (lermany  to  Britain,  is  due  to  th? 
further  fact  that  when  the  second  wander- 
ing took  place  the  race  possessed  a  fixed 
literary  language,  and,  thanks  to  the  ease 
of  communication,  was  kept  in  touch  with 
the  parent  stock.  The  change  of  blood  was 
probably  as  great  in  one  case  as  in  the 
other.  The  modern  Englishman  is  de- 


THE   WEST 


39 


scended  from  a  Low-Dutch  stock,  which, 
when  it  went  to  Britain,  received  into  itself 
an  enormous  infusion  of  Celtic,  a  much 
smaller  infusion  of  Norse  and  Danish,  and 
also  a  certain  infusion  of  Norman-French 
blood.  When  this  new  English  stock  came 
to  America  it  mingled  with  and  absorbed 
into  itself  immigrants  from  many  Euro- 
pean lands,  and  the  process  has  gone  on 
ever  since.  It  is  to  be  noted  that,  of  the 
new  blood  thus  acquired,  the  greatest  pro- 
portion has  come  from  Dutch  and  German 
sources,  and  the  next  greatest  from  Irish, 
while  the  Scandinavian  element  comes 
third,  and  the  only  other  of  much  conse- 
quence is  French  Huguenot.  Thus  it  ap- 
pears that  no  new  element  of  importance 
has  been  added  to  the  blood.  Additions 
have  been  made  to  the  elemental  race- 
strains  in  much  the  same  proportion  as 
these  were  originally  combined. 

Some  latter-day  writers  deplore  the  enor- 
mous immigration  to  our  shores  as  making 
us  a  heterogeneous  instead  of  a  homogen- 
eous people ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  we  arc 
less  heterogeneous  at  the  present  day  than 
we  were  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution. 
Our  blood  was  as  much  mixed  a  century 
ago  as  it  is  now.  No  State  now  has  a 
smaller  proportion  of  English  blood  than 
New  York  or  Pennsylvania  had  in  1775. 
Even  in  New  England,  where  the  English 
stock  was  purest,  there  was  a  certain 
French  and  Irish  mixture ;  in  Virginia 


40  TIII-:  JF/.Y.Y/.YC  or 

there  were  Germans  in  addition.  In  the 
other  colonies,  taken  as  a  whole,  it  is  not 
probable  that  much  over  half  of  the  blood 
was  English  ;  Dutch,  French,  German,  and 
Gaelic  communities  abounded. 

But  all  were  being  rapidly  fused  into  one 
people.  As  the  Celt  of  Cornwall  and  the 
Saxon  of  \Ycssex  are  now  alike  English- 
men, so  in  1775  Hollander  and  Huguenot, 
whether  in  New  York  or  South  Carolina, 
had  become  Americans,  undistinguishable 
from  the  Xew  Englanders  and  Yirginians, 
the  descendants  of  the  men  who  followed 
Cromwell  or  charged  behind  Rupert.  When 
the  great  western  movement  began  we  were 
already  a  people  by  ourselves.  Moreover, 
the  immense  immigration  from  Europe  that 
has  taken  place  since,  had  little  or  no  effect 
on  the  way  in  which  we  extended  our 
boundaries  ;  it  only  began  to  be  imjx)rtant 
about  the  time  that  we  acquired  our  present 
limits.  These  limits  would  in  all  probability- 
be  what  the\'  now  are  even  if  we  had  not 
received  a  single  European  colonist  since 
the  Revolution. 

Thus  the  Americans  began  their  work  of 
western  conquest  as  a  separate  and  individ- 
ual people,  at  the  moment  when  they  sprang 
into  national  life.  It  has  been  their  great 
work  ever  since.  All  other  questions  save 
those  of  the  preservation  of  the  Union 
itself  and  of  the  (.-mancipation  of  the  blacks 
have  been  of  subordinate  importance  when 
compared  with  the  great  question  of  how 


THE  WEST  41 

rapidly  and  how  completely  they  were  to 
subjugate  that  part  of  their  continent  lying 
between  the  eastern  mountains  and  the 
Pacific.  Yet  the  statesmen  of  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  were  often  unable  to  perceive  this, 
and  indeed  frequently  showed  the  same  nar- 
row jealousy  of  the  communities  beyond 
the  Alleghanies  that  England  felt  for  all 
America.  Even  if  they  were  too  broad- 
minded  and  far-seeing  to  feel  thus,  they  yet 
were  unable  to  fully  appreciate  the  magni- 
tude of  the  interests  at  stake  in  the  west. 
They  thought  more  of  our  right  to  the 
North  Atlantic  fisheries  than  of  our  owner- 
ship of  the  Mississippi  valley ;  they  were 
more  interested  in  the  fate  of  a  bank  or  a 
tariff  than  in  the  settlement  of  the  Oregon 
boundary.  Most  contemporary  writers 
showed  similar  shortcomings  in  their  sense 
of  historic  perspective.  The  names  of 
Ethan  Allen  and  Marion  are  probably  better 
known  than  is  that  of  George  Rogers  Clark ; 
yet  their  deeds,  as  regards  their  effects, 
could  no  more  be  compared  to  his,  than  his 
could  be  compared  to  Washington's.  So  it 
was  with  Houston.  During  his  lifetime 
there  were  probably  fifty  men  who,  east  of 
the  Mississippi,  were  deemed  far  greater 
than  he  was.  Yet  in  most  cases  their 
names  have  already  almost  faded  from  re- 
membrance, while  his  fame  will  grow 
steadily  brighter  as  the  importance  of  his 
deeds  is  more  thoroughly  realized.  For- 
tunately, in  the  long  run,  the  mass  of  east- 


42  THE  WINNING  OP 

crners    always    backed    up    their    western 
brethren. 

The  kind  of  colonizing  conquest,  whereby 
the  people  of  the  United  States  have  ex- 
tended their  borders,  has  much  in  common 
with  the  similar  movements  in  Canada  and 
Australia,  all  of  them  standing  in  sharp 
contrast  to  what  has  gone  on  in  Spanish- 
American  lands.  But  of  course  each  is 
marked  out  in  addition  by  certain  peculiar- 
ities of  its  own.  Moreover,  even  in  the 
United  States,  the  movement  falls  naturally 
into  two  divisions,  which  on  several  points 
differ  widely  from  each  other. 

The  way  in  which  the  southern  part  of 
our  western  country — that  is,  all  the  land 
south  of  the  Ohio,  and  from  thence  on  to 
the  Rio  Grande  and  the  Pacific — was  won 
and  settled,  stands  quite  alone.  The  region 
north  of  it  was  filled  up  in  a  very  different 
manner.  The  Southwest,  including  therein 
what  was  once  called  simply  the  West,  and 
afterwards  the  Middle  West,  was  \\-on  by  the 
people  themselves,  acting  as  individuals,  or 
as  groups  of  individuals,  who  hewed  out 
their  own  fortunes  in  advance  of  any  gov- 
ernmental action.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Northwest,  speaking  broadly,  was  acquired 
by  the  government,  the  settlers  merely  tak- 
ing possession  of  what  the  whole  country 
guaranteed  them.  The  Northwest  is  es- 
sentially a  national  domain ;  it  is  fitting 
that  it  should  be,  as  it  is,  not  only  by 


THE  WEST  43 

position  but  by  feeling,  the  heart  of  the  na- 
tion. 

North  of  the  Ohio  the  regular  army  went 
first.  The  settlements  grew  up  behind  the 
shelter  of  the  federal  troops  of  Harmar,  St. 
Claire,  and  Wayne,  and  of  their  successors 
even  to  our  own  day.  The  wars  in  which 
the  borderers  themselves  bore  any  part  were 
few  and  trifling  compared  to  the  contests 
waged  by  the  adventurers  who  won  Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee,  and  Texas. 

Tn  the  Southwest  the  early  settlers  acted 
as  their  own  army,  and  supplied  both  leaders 
and  men.  Sevier,  Robertson,  Clark,  and 
Boone  led  their  fellow  pioneers  to  battle,  as 
Jackson  did  afterwards,  and  as  Houston  did 
later  still.  Indeed  the  Southwesterners  not 
only  won  their  own  soil  for  themselves,  but 
they  were  the  chief  instruments  in  the  orig- 
inal acquisition  of  the  Northwest  also.  Had 
it  not  been  for  the  conquest  of  the  Illinois 
towns  in  1779  we  would  probably  never 
have  had  any  Northwest  to  settle ;  and  the 
huge  tract  between  the  upper  Mississippi 
and  the  Columbia,  then  called  Upper  Louis- 
iana, fell  into  our  hands,  only  because  the 
Kentuckians  and  Tennesseeans  were  reso- 
lutely bent  on  taking  possession  of  New 
Orleans,  either  by  bargain  or  battle.  All 
of  our  territory  lying  beyond  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  north  and  south,  was  first  won  for 
us  by  the  Southwesterners,  fighting  for  their 
own  hand.  The  northern  part  was  after- 


44 


THE   II' IX XING  OF 


wards  filled  up  by  the  thrifty,  vigorous  men 
of  the  Northeast,  whose  sons  became  the 
real  rulers  as  well  as  the  preservers  of  the 
Union ;  but  these  settlements  of  Northerners 
were  rendered  possible  only  by  the  deeds 
of  the  nation  as  a  whole.  They  entered  on 
land  that  the  Southerners  had  won,  and 
they  were  kept  there  by  the  strong  arm  of 
the  Federal  Government ;  whereas  the 
Southerners  owed  most  of  their  victories 
only  to  themselves. 

The  first-comers  around  Marietta  did,  it 
is  true,  share  to  a  certain  extent  in  the  dan- 
gers of  the  existing  Indian  wars  ;  but  their 
trials  are  not  to  be  mentioned  beside  those 
endured  by  the  early  settlers  of  Tennessee 
and  Kentucky,  and  whereas  these  latter 
themselves  subdued  and  drove  out  their 
foes,  the  former  took  but  an  insignificant 
part  in  the  contest  by  which  the  possession 
of  their  land  was  secured.  Besides,  the 
strongest  and  most  numerous  Indian  tribes 
were  in  the  Southwest. 

The  Southwest  developed  its  civilization 
on  its  own  lines,  for  good  and  for  ill;  the 
Northwest  was  settled  under  the  national 
ordinance  of  17^7.  which  absolutely  de- 
termined its  destiny,  and  thereby  in  the  end 
also  determined  the  destiny  of  the  whole 
nation.  Moreover,  the  gulf  coast,  as  well 
as  the  interior,  from  the  Mississippi  to  the 
Pacific,  was  held  bv  fmvign  powers;  while 
in  the  north  this  was  only  true  of  the  coun- 
try between  the  Ohio  and  the  Great  Lakes 


THE  WEST  45 

during  the  first  years  of  the  Revolution, 
until  the  Kentucky  backwoodsmen  con- 
quered it.  Our  rivals  of  European  race  had 
dwelt  for  generations  along  the  lower  Mis- 
sissippi and  the  Rio  Grande,  in  Florida, 
and  in  California,  when  we  made  them  ours. 
Detroit,  Vincennes,  St.  Louis,  and  New  Or- 
leans, St.  Augustine,  San  Antonio,  Santa 
Fe,  and  San  Francisco  are  cities  that  were 
built  by  Frenchmen  or  Spaniards ;  we  did 
not  found  them,  but  conquered  them.  All 
but  the  first  two  are  in  the  Southwest,  and 
of  these  two  one  was  first  taken  and  gov- 
erned by  South  westerners.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Northwestern  cities,  from  Cincin- 
nati and  Chicago  to  Helena  and  Portland, 
were  founded  by  our  own  people,  by  the 
people  who  now  have  possession  of  them. 

The  Southwest  was  conquered  only  after 
years  of  hard  fighting  with  the  original 
owners.  The  way  in  which  this  was  done 
bears  much  less  resemblance  to  the  sudden 
filling  up  of  Australia  and  California  by  the 
practically  unopposed  overflow  from  a  teem- 
ing and  civilized  mother  country,  than  it 
does  to  the  original  English  conquest  of 
Britain  itself.  The  warlike  borderers  who 
thronged  across  the  Alleghanies,  the  rest- 
less and  reckless  hunters,  the  hard,  dogged, 
frontier  farmers,  by  dint  of  grim  tenacity 
overcame  and  displaced  Indians,  French, 
and  Spaniards  alike,  exactly  as,  fourteen 
hundred  years  before,  Saxon  and  Angle 
had  overcome  and  displaced  the  Cymric  and 


46  THE  WINNING  OF 

Gaelic  Celts.  They  were  led  by  no  one 
commander ;  they  acted  under  orders  from 
neither  king  nor  congress ;  they  were  not 
carrying  out  the  plans  of  any  far-sighted 

leader.  Tn  obedience  to  the  instincts  work- 
ing half  blindly  within  their  breasts,  spurred 
ever  onwards  by  the  fierce  desires  of  their 
eager  hearts,  they  made  in  the  wilderness 
homes  for  their  children,  and  by  so  doing 
wrought  out  the  destinies  of  a  continental 
nation.  They  warred  and  settled  from  the 
high  hill-valleys  of  the  French  Broad  and  the 
Upper  Cumberland  to  the  half-tropical  basin 
of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  to  where  the  Golden 
Gate  lets  through  the  long-heaving  waters  of 
the  Pacific.  The  story  of  how  this  was  done 
forms  a  compact  and  continuous  whole.  The 
fathers  followed  Boone  or  fought  at  King's 
Mountain ;  the  sons  marched  south  with 
Jackson  to  overcome  the  Creeks  and  beat 
back  the  British  ;  the  grandsons  died  at  the 
Alamo  or  charged  to  victory  at  San  Jacinto. 
They  were  doing  their  share  of  a  work  that 
began  with  the  conquest  of  Britain,  that  en- 
tered on  its  second  and  wider  period  after 
the  defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada,  that  cul- 
minated in  the  marvellous  growth  of  the 
United  States.  The  winning  of  the  West 
and  Southwest  is  a  stage  in  the  conquest  of 
a  continent. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    FRENCH    OF    THE    OHIO   VALLEY, 
1763-1775 

THE  result  of  England's  last  great  colo- 
nial struggle  with  France  was  to 
sever  from  the  latter  all  her  American 
dependencies,  her  colonists  becoming  the 
subjects  of  alien  and  rival  powers.  England 
won  Canada  and  the  Ohio  valley ;  while 
France  ceded  to  her  Spanish  allies  Louis- 
iana, including  therein  all  the  territory 
vaguely  bounded  by  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Pacific.  As  an  offset  to  this  gain  Spain  had 
herself  lost  to  England  both  Floridas,  as 
the  coast  regions  between  Georgia  and 
Louisiana  were  then  called. 

Thus  the  thirteen  colonies,  at  the  outset  of 
their  struggle  for  independence,  saw  them- 
selves surrounded  north,  south,  and  west,  by 
lands  where  the  rulers  and  the  ruled  were  of 
different  races,  but  where  rulers  and  ruled 
alike  were  hostile  to  the  new  people  that  was 
destined  in  the  end  to  master  them  all. 

The  present  province  of  Quebec,  then 
called  Canada,  was  already,  what  she  has  to 
this  day  remained,  a  French  state  acknowl- 
edging the  English  king  as  her  over-lord. 

47 


48  Tin:  u'lxxixc  OF 

Her  interests  did  not  conflict  with  those  of 
our  people,  nor  touch  them  in  any  way,  and 
she  has  had  little  to  do  with  our  national  his- 
tory, and  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
history  of  the  west. 

In  the  peninsula  of  East  Florida,  in  the 
land  of  the  cypress,  palmetto,  and  live  oak, 
of  open  savannas,  of  sandy  pine  forests,  and 
impenetrable,  interminable  morasses,  a  Euro- 
pean civilization  more  ancient  than  any  in 
the  English  colonies  was  mouldering  in  slow 
decay.  Its  capital  city  \vas  quaint  St.  Au- 
gustine, the  old  walled  town  that  was 
founded  by  the  Spaniards  long  years  before 
the  keel  of  the  Half-Moon  furrowed  the 
broad  Hudson,  or  the  ships  of  the  Puritans 
sighted  the  Xew  England  coast.  In  times 
past  St.  Augustine  had  once  and  again  seen 
her  harbor  rilled  with  the  huge,  cumbrous 
hulls,  and  whitened  bv  the  bellying  sails,  of 
the  Spanish  war  vessels,  when  the  fleets  of 
the  Catholic  king  gathered  there,  before  set- 
ting out  against  the  seaboard  towns  of 
Georgia  and  the  Carolinas  :  and  she  had  to 
suffer  from  and  repulse  the  retaliatory  in- 
roads of  the  English  colonists.  Once  her 
priests  and  soldiers  had  brought  the  Indian 
tribes,  far  and  near,  under  subjection,  and 
had  dotted  the  wilderness  with  fort  and 
church  and  plantation,  the  outposts  of  her  do- 
minion :  but  that  was  long  ago,  and  the  tide 
of  Spanish  success  had  turned  and  begun  to 
ebb  many  vear-  before  the  English  took  pos- 
session of  E'orida.  The  Seminoles,  fierce  and 


THE   WEST 


49 


warlike,  whose  warriors  fought  on  foot  and 
on  horseback,  had  avenged  in  countless 
bloody  forays  their  fellow-Indian  tribes, 
whose  very  names  had  perished  under  Span- 
ish rule.  The  churches  and  forts  had  crum- 
bled into  nothing :  only  the  cannon  and  the 
brazen  bells,  half  buried  in  the  rotting  mould, 
remained  to  mark  the  place  where  once  stood 
spire  and  citadel.  The  deserted  plantations, 
the  untravelled  causeways,  no  longer  marred 
the  face  of  the  tree-clad  land,  for  even  their 
sites  had  ceased  to  be  distinguishable ;  the 
great  high-road  that  led  to  Pensacola  had 
faded  away,  overgrown  by  the  rank  luxuri- 
ance of  the  semi-tropical  forest.  Throughout 
the  interior  the  painted  savages  roved  at  will, 
uncontrolled  by  Spaniard  or  Englishman,  ow- 
ing allegiance  only  to  the  White  Chief  of 
Tallasotchce.1  St.  Augustine,  with  its  Brit- 
ish garrison  and  its  Spanish  and  Minorcan 
townsfolk.2  was  still  a  gathering  place  for  a 
few  Indian  traders,  and  for  the  scattered  fish- 
ermen of  the  coast :  elsewhere  there  were  in 
all  not  more  than  a  hundred  families.3 

Beyond  the  Chattahooche  and  the  Appa- 

1  "  Travels  by  William  Bartram,"  Philadelphia, 
1791,  pp.  184.  231,  232,  etc.  The  various  Indian 
names  are  spelt  in  a  dozen  different  ways. 

1  Reise,  etc.  (in  1783  and  84),  by  Johann  David 
Schopf.  1788,  II.  362.  The  Minorcans  were  the 
most  numerous  and  prosperous;  then  came  the 
Spaniards,  with  a  few  Creoles,  English,  and  Ger- 


3  J.  D.  F.  Smyth.  "  Tour  in  the  United  States  " 
(1775),  London,  1784,  II.  35. 


5o  THE  WINNING  OF 

lachicola,  stretching  thence  to  the  Mississippi 
and  its  delta,  lay  the  more  prosperous  region 
of  West  Florida.4  Although  taken  by  the 
English  from  Spain,  there  were  few  Span- 
iards among  the  people,  who  were  controlled 
by  the  scanty  llritish  garrisons  at  Pensa- 
cola,  Mobile,  and  Natchez.  On  the  Gulf 
coast  the  inhabitants  were  mainly  French 
Creoles.  They  were  an  indolent,  pleasure- 
loving  race,  fond  of  dancing  and  merriment, 
living  at  ease  in  their  low,  square,  roomy 
houses  on  the  straggling,  rudely  farmed 
plantations  that  lay  along  the  river  banks. 
Their  black  slaves  worked  for  them  ;  they 
themselves  spent  much  of  their  time  in  fish- 
ing and  fowling.  Their  favorite  arm  was  the 
light  fowling-piece,  for  they  were  expert 
wing  shots  •' ;  unlike  the  American  back- 
woodsmen, who  knew  nothing  of  shooting 
on  the  wing,  and  looked  down  on  smooth- 
bores, caring  only  for  the  rifle,  the  true 
weapon  of  the  freeman.  In  winter  the  Cre- 
oles took  their  negroes  to  the  hills,  where 
they  made  tar  from  the  pitch  pine,  and  this 
thev  exported,  as  well  as  indigo,  rice,  to- 
bacco, bear's  oil,  peltry,  oranges,  and  squared 

4  Do. 

""Momoire  oti  Cnup-d'CKil  Rapide  sur  mes 
differentes  voyage^  et  mon  scjnur  dans  la  nation 
("reck,  par  T.e  Gal.  Milfnrt,  Tastnncgy  ou  grand 
clief  de  guerre  de  la  nation  Cn-ck  et  General  de 
Brigade  an  service  do  la  Rcpublique  Francaise." 
Paris,  1^02.  Writing  in  17.^1,  lie  said  Mobile 
contained  about  forty  proprietary  families,  and 
was  "  tin  petit  paradis  terrestre." 


THE  WEST  51 

timber.  Cotton  was  grown,  but  only  for 
home  use.  The  British  soldiers  dwelt  in 
stockaded  forts,  mounting  light  cannon ;  the 
governor  lived  in  the  high  stone  castle  built 
of  old  by  the  Spaniards  at  Pensacola.6 

In  the  part  of  west  Florida  lying  along  the 
east  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  there  were  also 
some  French  Creoles  and  a  few  Spaniards, 
with  of  course  negroes  and  Indians  to  boot. 
But  the  population  consisted  mainly  of 
Americans  from  the  old  colonies,  who  had 
come  thither  by  sea  in  small  sailing-vessels, 
or  had  descended  the  Ohio  and  the  Tennes- 
see in  flat-boats,  or,  perchance,  had  crossed 
the  Creek  country  with  pack  ponies,  follow- 
ing the  narrow  trails  of  the  Indian  traders. 
With  them  were  some  English  and  Scotch, 
and  the  Americans  themselves  had  little  sym- 
pathy with  the  colonies,  feeling  instead  a  cer- 
tain dread  and  dislike  of  the  rough  Carolin- 
ian mountaineers,  who  were  their  nearest 
white  neighbors  on  the  east.7  They  there- 
fore, for  the  most  part,  remained  loyal  to  the 
crown  in  the  Revolutionary  struggle,  and 
suffered  accordingly. 

When  Louisiana  was  ceded  to  Spain,  most 
of  the  French  Creoles  who  formed  her  popu- 
lation were  clustered  together  in  the  delta  of 
the  Mississippi ;  the  rest  were  scattered  out 
here  and  there,  in  a  thin,  dotted  line,  up  the 
left  bank  of  the  river  to  the  Missouri,  near 

*  Bartram,  407. 

1  Magazine  of  American  Plistory,  IV.,  388.  Let- 
ter of  a  New  England  settler  in  1773. 


52  Tin-  inxxixG  01-' 

the  mouth  of  which  there  \vcre  several  small 
villages, — St.  Louis,  St.  Genevieve,  St. 
Charles/  A  strong  Spanish  garrison  held 
New  Orleans,  where  the  Creoles,  discontented 
with  their  new  masters,  had  once  risen  in  a 
revolt  that  was  speedily  quelled  and  severely 
punished.  Small  garrisons  were  also  placed 
in  the  different  villages. 

Our  people  had  little  to  do  with  either 
Florida  or  Louisiana  until  after  the  close  of 
the.  Revolutionary  war;  hut  very  early  in 
that  struggle,  and  soon  after  the  movement 
west  of  the  mountain.-,  begun,  we  we  re- 
thrown into  contact  with  the  French  of  the 
Northwestern  Territory,  and  the  result  was 
of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  future  wel- 
fare of  the  whole  nation. 

This  northwestern  land  lay  between  the 
Mississippi,  the  Ohio.  ;>ud  the  Great  Lakes. 
It  now  constitutes  five  of  our  large  States 
and  part  of  a  sixth.  lUit  when  independence 
was  declared  it  was  quite  as  much  a  foreign 
territory,  considered  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  oM  thirteen  colonies,  as  Florida  or  Can- 
aria;  the  difference  was  that,  whereas  during 
the  war  we  failed  in  our  attempts  to  conquer 
Florida  and  Canada,  we  succeeded  in  con- 
quering the  Northwest.  The  Northwest 
formed  no  pnrt  •  >i~  >ur  country  a^  it  originally 
stood:  it  had  no  portion  in  the  declaration  of 
independence.  It  did  not  revolt  ;  it  was  con- 
quered. Its  inhab-'tants.  at  the  outset  of  the 

""Annals  of  St.  Louis."  Frederic  L.  Billon. 
St.  Louis,  1886.  A  valuable  book. 


THE   ]]'EST 


53 


Revolution,  no  more  sympathized  with  us, 
and  felt  no  greater  inclination  to  share  our 
fate,  than  did  their  kinsmen  in  Quebec  or  the 
Spaniards  in  St.  Augustine.  We  made  our 
first  important  conquest  during  the  Revo- 
lution itself. — beginning  thus  early  what  was 
to  be  our  distinguishing  work  for  the  next 
seventy  years. 

These  French  settlements,  which  had  been 
founded  about  the  beginning  of  the  century, 
when  the  English  still  clung  to  the  estuaries 
of  the  seaboard,  were  grouped  in  three  clus- 
ters, separated  by  hundreds  of  miles  of  wil- 
derness. One  of  these  clusters,  containing 
something  like  a  third  of  the  total  population, 
was  at  the  straits,  around  Detroit.9  It  was 

9  In  the  Haldimand  MSS.,  Series  B,  vol.  122, 
p.  2.  is  a  census  of  Detroit  itself,  taken  in  1773  by 
Philip  Dejean,  justice  of  the  peace.  According 
to  this  there  were  1.367  souls,  of  whom  85  were 
slaves;  they  dwelt  in  280  house?,  with  157  hams, 
and  owned  1.494  horned  cattle,  628  sheep,  and 
1.067  hogs.  Acre  is  u.>cd  as  a  measure  of  length; 
their  united  farms  had  a  frontage  of  512.  and 
went  hack  from  40  to  So.  Some  of  the  people,  it 
is  specified,  were  not  enumerated  because  they 
were  out  hunting  or  trading  at  the  Indian  villages. 
Besides  the  slaves,  there  were  93  servants. 

This  only  refers  to  the  settlers  of  Detroit  proper, 
and  the  farms  adioining.  Of  the  numerous  other 
farms,  and  the  small  villages  on  both  sides  of  the 
straits,  and  of  the  many  families  and  individuals 
living  as  traders  or  trappers  with  the  Indians,  I 
can  get  no  good  record.  Perhaps  the  total  popu- 
lation, tributary  to  Detroit  was  2,000.  It  may 
have  been  over  this.  Any  attempt  to  estimate 
this  creole  population  perforce  contains  much 
guess-work. 


54  THE   U' IX  \I.\G  OF 

the  seat  of  the  British  power  in  that  section, 
and  remained  in  British  hands  for  twenty 
years  after  we  had  become  a  nation. 

The  other  two  were  linked  together  by 
their  subsequent  history,  and  it  is  only  with 
them  that  we  have  to  deal.  The  village  of 
Yincennes  lay  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the 
Wabash,  with  two  or  three  smaller  villages 
tributary  to  it  in  the  country  round  about; 
and  to  the  west,  beside  the  Mississippi,  far 
above  where  it  is  joined  by  the  Ohio,  lay  the 
so-called  Illinois  towns,  the  villages  of  Kas- 
kaskia  and  Cahokia,  with  between  them  the 
little  settlements  of  Prairie  du  Rocher  and 
St.  Philip.10 

Both  these  groups  of  old  French  hamlets 
were  in  the  fertile  prairie  region  of  what  is 
now  southern  Indiana  and  Illinois.  We  have 
taken  into  otir  language  the  word  prairie  be- 
cause when  our  backwoodsmen  first  reached 
the  land  and  saw  the  great  natural  meadows 
of  long  grass — sights  unknown  to  the 
gloomv  forests  wherein  they  had  always 
dwelt — they  knew  not  what  to  call  them,  and 
borrowed  the  term  already  in  use  among  the 
French  inhabitants. 

The  great  prairies,  level  or  rolling, 
stretched  from  north  to  south,  separated  by 
broad  belts  of  high  timber.  Here  and  there 
copses  of  woodland  lay  like  islands  in  the 
sunny  seas  of  tall.  wav;ng  grass.  Where  the 
rivers  ran.  their  al'uv.al  bottoms  were 

"State  Department  MSS.,  No.  150,  Vol.  III., 
p.  89. 


THE  WEST  55 

densely  covered  with  trees  and  underbrush, 
and  were  often  overflowed  in  the  spring 
freshets.  Sometimes  the  prairies  were  long, 
narrow  strips  of  meadow  land ;  again  they 
were  so  broad  as  to  be  a  day's  journey  across, 
and  to  the  American,  bred  in  a  wooded 
country  where  the  largest  openings  were  the 
beaver  meadows  and  the  clearings  of  the 
frontier  settlers,  the  stretches  of  grass  land 
seemed  limitless.  They  abounded  in  game. 
The  buffalo  crossed  and  recrossed  them, 
wandering  to  and  fro  in  long  files,  beating 
narrow  trails  that  they  followed  year  in  and 
year  out ;  while  bear,  elk,  and  deer  dwelt  in 
the  groves  around  the  borders.11 

There  were  perhaps  some  four  thousand 
inhabitants  in  these  French  villages,  divided 
almost  equally  between  those  in  the  Illinois 
and  those  along  the  Wabash.12 

11  Do.  Harmar's  letter. 

12  State  Department  MSS.,  No.  30,  p.  453.     Me- 
morial  of   Frangois    Carbonneaux,    agent   for   the 
inhabitants  of  the  Illinois  country.     Dec.  8,   1784. 
"  Four    hundred    families     [in    the    Illinois]    ex- 
clusive of  a  like  number  at  Post  Vincent  "   [Vin- 
cennes].     Americans  had  then  just  begun  to  come 
in,   but  this   enumeration   did   not   refer  to   them. 
The  population  had  decreased  during  the  Revolu- 
tionary war ;    so  that  at   its  outbreak  there  were 
probably    altogether    a    thousand    families.     They 
were  very  prolific,  and  four  to  a  family  is  probably 
not  too  great  an   allowance,   even   when   we  con- 
sider that   in   such   a   community   on   the   frontier 
there   are   always   plenty   of   solitary   adventurers. 
Moreover,  there  were  a  number  of  negro  slaves. 
Harmar's  letter  of  Nov.  24,  1787,  states  the  adult 
males    of  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia  at  four  hundred 


5 6  THE   irV.VA7.VC  OF 

The  country  came  into  the  possession  of 
the  British — not  of  the  colonial  English  or 
Americans — at  the  close  of  Pontiac's  war, 
the  aftermath  of  the  struggle  which  decided 
against  the  French  the  ownership  of  Amer- 
ica. It  was  held  as  a  new  British  province, 
not  as  an  extension  of  any  of  the  old  col- 
onies; and  finally  in  17/4.  by  the  famous 
Quebec  Act,  it  was  rendered  an  appanage  of 
Canada,  governed  from  the  latter.  It  is  a 
curious  fact  that  England  immediately 
adopted  towards  her  own  colonists  the  policy 

and  forty,  not  counting  lho-e  at  St.  Philip  nr 
Prairie  du  Rocher.  This  tallies  very  well  with 
the  preceding.  But  of  cour-e  the  number  given 
can  only  be  con-idered  approximately  accurate, 
and  a  pas-age  in  a  letter  of  I.t.-Gov.  Hamilton 
would  indicate  that  it  \va-  considerably  smaller. 

Tiiis  letter  is  to  he  found  in  the  Haldimand 
MSS.,  Series  B.  Vol.  i2.v  p.  53:  it  is  the  "brief 
account"  of  hi-  ii!--tatTed  expedition  atrain.st  Vin- 
eenncs.  He  says:  "On  taking  an  account  of  the 
Inhabitants  ;;t  th;-  place  [Vincennes],  of  all  ages 
and  -exe-.  we  found  iheir  number  to  amount  to 
621  :  of  this  217  fit  to  hear  arms  mi  the  -pot.  sev- 
eral being  ab-ent  hunting  Ruffaloe  for  their  win- 
ter provision."  P.1.;!  elsewhere  in.  the  same  letter 
he  allude-  to  the  adult  arm--bearing  men  as  being 
three  hundred  in  number,  an''  of  course  the  outly- 
ing farms  and  small  tnhutary  vil'age-  arc  iv>t 
counted  in.  Thi.-  \va-  in  December,  I7/K.  Possi- 
bly -omr  familie-  !;ad  left  for  the  Spani-b  pn,ses- 
sion-  after  'he  war  broke  out.  aiv!  returned  after 
it  was  ended  But  a-  al!  ob-ervers  seem  to  unite 
in  stating  that  the  settlement-  either  -too,]  -.till  or 
went  backward-  during  the  Revolutionary  strug- 
gle, it  U  -omewhat  difficult  to  reconcile  the  figures 
of  Hamilton  and  Carbonneaux. 


THE   WEST 


57 


of  the  very  nationality  she  had  ousted.  From 
the  date  of  the  triumphant  peace  won  by 
Wolfe's  victory,  the  British  government  be- 
came the  most  active  foe  of  the  spread  of  the 
English  race  in  America.  This  position 
Britain  maintained  for  many  years  after  the 
failure  of  her  attempt  to  bar  her  colonists 
out  of  the  Ohio  valley.  It  was  the  position 
she  occupied  when  at  Ghent  in  1814  her  com- 
missioners tried  to  hem  in  the  natural  prog- 
ress of  her  colonists'  children  by  the  erection 
of  a  great  "  neutral  belt  "  of  Indian  territory, 
guaranteed  by  the  British  king.  It  was  the 
role  which  her  statesmen  endeavored  to  make 
her  play  when  at  a  later  date  they  strove  to 
keep  Oregon  a  waste  rather  than  see  it  peo- 
pled by  Americans. 

In  the  northwest  she  succeeded  to  the 
French  policy  as  well  as  the  French  position. 
She  wished  the  land  to  remain  a  wilderness, 
the  home  of  the  trapper  and  the  fur  trader, 
of  the  Indian  hunter  and  the  French  voy- 
ageur.  She  desired  it  to  be  kept  as  a  barrier 
against  the  growth  of  the  seaboard  colonies 
towards  the  interior.  She  regarded  the  new 
lands  across  the  Atlantic  as  being  won  and 
settled,  not  for  the  benefit  of  the  men  who 
won  and  settled  them,  but  for  the  benefit  of 
the  merchants  and  traders  who  stayed  at 
home.  It  was  this  that  rendered  the  Revo- 
lution inevitable ;  the  struggle  was  a  revolt 
against  the  whole  mental  attitude  of  Britain 
in  regard  to  America,  rather  than  against 
any  one  special  act  or  set  of  acts.  The  sins 


5  8  THE   ll'INXIXG  OF 

and  shortcomings  of  the  colonists  had  been 
many,  and  it  would  be  easy  to  make  out  a 
formidable  catalogue  of  grievances  against 
them,  on  behalf  of  the  mother  country;  but 
on  the  great  underlying  question  they  were 
wholly  in  the  right,  and  their  success  was 
of  vital  consequence  to  the  well-being  of  the 
race  on  this  continent. 

Several  of  the  old  colonies  urged  vague 
claims  to  parts  of  the  Northwestern  Terri- 
tory, basing  them  on  ancient  charters  and 
Indian  treaties;  but  the  British  heeded  them 
no  more  than  the  French  had,  and  thev  were 
very  little  nearer  fulfilment  after  the  defeat 
of  Montcalm  and  I'ontiac  than  before.  The 
French  had  held  adverse  possession  in  spite 
of  them  for  sixty  years  ;  the  Kritish  held  sim- 
ilar possession  for  fifteen  more.  The  mere 
statement  of  the  facts  is  enough  to  show  the 
intrinsic  worthlessness  of  the  titles.  The 
Xorthwest  was  acquired  from  France  by 
Great  Britain  through  conquest  and  treaty; 
in  a  precisely  similar  way — Clark  taking  the 
place  of  Wolfe — it  was  afterwards  won  from 
Britain  by  the  United  States.  \Ve  gained  it 
exactly  as  we  afterwards  gained  Louisiana, 
Florida,  Oregon.  (  'a'ifornia,  Xew  Mexico, 
and  Texas:  partly  hv  arms,  partly  by  diplo- 
macy, partly  by  the  -heer  growth  and  pres- 
sure of  our  spreading  population.  The  fact 
that  the  conquest  took  place  just  after  we 
had  declared  ourselves  a  free  nation,  and 
while  we  were  still  battling  to  maintain  our 
independence,  does  not  alter  its  character  in 


THE  WEST 


59 


the  least;  but  it  has  sufficed  to  render  the 
whole  transaction  very  hazy  in  the  minds  of 
most  subsequent  historians,  who  generally 
speak  as  if  the  Northwest  Territory  had  been 
part  of  our  original  possessions. 

The  French  who  dwelt  in  the  land  were  at 
the  time  little  affected  by  the  change  which 
transferred  their  allegiance  from  one  Euro- 
pean king  to  another.  They  were  accus- 
tomed to  obey,  without  question,  the  orders 
of  their  superiors.  They  accepted  the  re- 
sults of  the  war  submissively,  and  yielded 
a  passive  obedience  to  their  new  rulers.13 
Some  became  rather  attached  to  the  officers 
who  came  among  them ;  others  grew  rather 
to  dislike  them ;  most  felt  merely  a  vague 
sentiment  of  distrust  and  repulsion,  alike  for 
the  haughty  British  officer  in  his  scarlet  uni- 
form, and  for  the  reckless  backwoodsman 
clad  in  tattered  homespun  or  buckskin.  They 
remained  the  owners  of  the  villages,  the  till- 
ers of  the  soil.  At  first  few  English  or 
American  immigrants,  save  an  occasional  fur 
trader,  came  to  live  among  them.  But  their 
doom  was  assured ;  their  rule  was  at  an  end 
forever.  For  a  while  they  were  still  to 
compose  the  bulk  of  the  scanty  population ; 
but  nowhere  were  they  again  to  sway  their 

"In  the  Haldimaml  MSS.,  Series  B,  Vol.  122, 
p.  3,  the  letter  of  M.  Ste.  Marie  from  Vinccnnes, 
May  3,  1774,  gives  utterance  to  the  general  feeling 
of  the  Creoles,  when  he  announces,  in  promising 
in  their  behalf  to  carry  out  the  orders  of  the  Brit- 
ish commandant,  that  he  is  "  remplie  de  respect 
pour  tout  ce  qui  porte  1'emprinte  de  1'otorite."  [sic.] 


60  THE  WINNING  OF 

own  destinies.  In  after  years  they  fought  for 
and  against  both  whites  and  Indians ;  they 
faced  each  other,  ranged  beneath  the  rival 
banners  of  Spain,  England,  and  the  insurg- 
ent colonists ;  but  they  never  again  fought 
for  their  old  flag  or  for  their  own  sover- 
eignty. 

From  trie  overthrow  of  Pontiac  to  the  out- 
break of  the  Revolution  the  settlers  in  the 
Illinois  and  round  Vincennes  lived  in  peace 
under  their  old  laws  and  customs,  which 
were  continued  by  the  British  command- 
ants.14 They  had  been  originally  governed, 
in  the  same  way  that  Canada  was,  by  the 
laws  of  France,  adapted,  however,  to  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  new  country.  Moreover, 
they  had  local  customs  which  were  as  bind- 
ing as  the  laws.  After  the  conquest  the 
British  commandants  who  came  in  acted  as 
civil  judges  also.  All  public  transactions 
were  recorded  in  French  by  notaries  public. 
Orders  issued  in  English  were  translated 
into  French  so  that  they  might  be  under- 
stood. Criminal  cases  were  referred  to  Eng- 
land. Before  the  conquest  the  procureur 
du  roi  gave  sentence  by  his  own  personal  de- 
cision in  civil  cases;  if  the  matters  were  im- 
portant it  was  the  custom  for  each  party  to 
name  two  arbitrators,  and  the  procureur  du 
roi  a  fifth  ;  while  an  appeal  might  be  made  to 
the  council  superieur  at  Xew  Orleans.  The 

"  State  Department  MSS.,  No.  48,  p.  51.  State- 
ment of  M.  Ccrre  for  Carre),  July,  1786,  trans- 
lated by  John  Pintard. 


THE  WEST  6 1 

British  commandant  assumed  the  place  of  the 
procureur  du  roi,  although  there  were  one  or 
two  half-hearted  efforts  made  to  introduce 
the  Common  Law. 

The  original  French  commandants  had  ex- 
ercised the  power  of  granting  to  every  per- 
son who  petitioned  as  much  land  as  the  peti- 
tioner chose  to  ask  for,  subject  to  the 
condition  that  part  of  it  should  be  cultivated 
within  a  year,  under  penalty  of  its  reversion 
to  "  the  king's  demesnes."  15  The  English 
followed  the  same  custom.  A  large  quan- 
tity of  land  was  reserved  in  the  neighborhood 
of  each  village  for  the  common  use,  and  a 
very  small  quantity  for  religious  purposes. 
The  common  was  generally  a  large  patch  of 
enclosed  prairie,  part  of  it  being  cultivated, 
and  the  remainder  serving  as  a  pasture  for 
the  cattle  of  the  inhabitants.10  The  portion 
of  the  common  set  aside  for  agriculture  was 
divided  into  strips  of  one  arpent  in  front  by 
forty  in  depth,  and  one  or  more  allotted  to 
each  inhabitant  according  to  his  skill  and  in- 
dustry as  a  cultivator.17  The  arpent,  as  used 
by  the  western  French,  was  a  rather  rough 
measure  of  surface,  less  in  size  than  an 
acre.18  The  farms  held  by  private  owner- 

15  Do. 

18  State  Department  MSS.,  No.  48,  p.  41.  Peti- 
tion of  J.  B.  La  Croix,  A.  Girardin,  etc,,  dated 
"at  Cohoe  in  the  Illinois  nth  July,  1786." 

17  Billon.  91. 

18  An  arpent  of  land  was  180  French  feet  square. 
MS.    copy   of   Journal    of    Matthew    Clarkson   in 
1766.     In  Durrctt  collection. 


62  THE   11' IX XING  OP 

ship  likewise  ran  back  in  long  strips  from  a 
narrow  front  that  usually  lay  along  some 
stream.19  Several  of  them  generally  lay  par- 
allel to  one  another,  each  including  some- 
thing like  a  hundred  acres,  but  occasionally 
much  exceeding  this  amount. 

The  French  inhabitants  were  in  very  many 
cases  not  of  pure  blood.  The  early  settle- 
ments had  been  made  by  men  only,  by  sol- 
diers, traders,  and  trappers,  who  took  Indian 
wives.  They  were  not  trammelled  by  the 
queer  pride  which  makes  a  man  of  English 
stock  unwilling-  to  make  a  red-skinned  wo- 
man his  wife,  though  anxious  enough  to 
make  her  his  concubine.  Their  children  were 
baptized  in  the  little  parish  churches  by  the 
black-robed  priests,  and  grew  up  holding  the 
same  position  in  the  community  as  was  held 
bv  their  fellows  both  of  whose  parents  were 
white.  Tint,  in  addition  to  those  free  citizens, 
the  richer  inhabitants  owned  both  red  and 
black  slaves;  negroes  imported  from  Africa, 
or  Indians  overcome  and  taken  in  battle.20 
There  were  main-  freedmen  and  freedwomen 


"American   State  Papers,   Public  Lands,  I.,   n. 

30  Fergus  Historical  Series,  No.  12,  "Illinois  in 
the  l8th  Century/'  Edward  G.  Mason,  Chicago, 
1881.  A  most  excellent  number  of  an  excellent 
series.  The  old  parish  registers  of  Kaskaskia, 
going  back  to  1005.  contain  some  remarkable 
names  of  the  Indian  mothers — such  as  Maria 
Aramipinchicoue  and  Domitilla  Tehuigouanakiga- 
boucoue.  Sometimes  the  man  is  only  distin- 
guished by  some  >uch  title  as  "The  Parisian,"  or 
"  The  Bohemian." 


THE  WEST  63 

of  both  colors,  and  in  consequence  much 
mixture  of  blood. 

They  were  tillers  of  the  soil,  and  some  fol- 
lowed, in  addition,  the  trades  of  blacksmith 
and  carpenter.  Very  many  of  them  were 
trappers  or  fur  traders.  Their  money  was 
composed  of  furs  and  peltries,  rated  at  a 
fixed  price  per  pound-1;  none  other  was 
used  unless  expressly  so  stated  in  the  con- 
tract. Like  the  French  of  Europe,  their  unit 
of  value  was  the  livre,  nearly  equivalent  to 
the  modern  franc.  They  were  not  very  in- 
dustrious, nor  very  thrifty  husbandmen. 
Their  farming  implements  were  rude,  their 
methods  of  cultivation  simple  and  primitive, 
and  they  themselves  were  often  lazy  and  im- 
provident. Near  their  town  they  had  great 
orchards  of  gnarled  apple-trees,  planted  by 
their  forefathers  when  they  came  from 
France,  and  old  pear-trees,  of  a  kind  un- 
known to  the  Americans ;  but  their  fields 
often  lay  untilled,  while  the  owners  lolled  in 
the  sunshine  smoking  their  pipes.  In  con- 
sequence they  were  sometimes  brought  to 
sore  distress  for  food,  being  obliged  to  pluck 
their  corn  while  it  was  still  green.22 

The  pursuits  of  the  fur  trader  and  fur 
trapper  were  far  more  congenial  to  them,  and 
it  was  upon  these  that  they  chiefly  depended. 
The  half-savage  life  of  toil,  hardship,  excite- 
ment, and  long  intervals  of  idleness  attracted 

"Billon,  go. 

21  Letter  of  P.  A.  Laforge,  Dec.  31,  1786.  Bil- 
lon, 268. 


64  THE  ll'INNIXG  OP 

them  strongly.  This  was  perhaps  one  among 
the  reasons  why  they  got  on  so  much  better 
with  the  Indians  than  did  the  Americans, 
who,  wherever  they  went,  made  clearings 
and  settlements,  cut  down  the  trees,  and 
drove  off  the  game. 

But  even  these  pursuits  were  followed  un- 
der the  ancient  customs  and  usages  of  the 
country,  leave  to  travel  and  trade  being  first 
obtained  from  the  commandant 23 ;  for  the 
rule  of  the  commandant  was  almost  patri- 
archal. The  inhabitants  were  utterly  unac- 
quainted with  what  the  Americans  called  lib- 
erty. When  they  passed  under  our  rule,  it 
was  soon  found  that  it  was  impossible  to 
make  them  understand  such  an  institution  as 
trial  by  jury;  they  throve  best  under  the 
form  of  government  to  which  they  had  been 
immemorially  accustomed — a  commandant 
to  give  them  orders,  with  a  few  troops  to 
back  him  up."4  They  often  sought  to  escape 
from  these  orders,  but  rarely  to  defy  them; 
their  lawlessness  was  like  the  lawlessness  of 
children  and  savages ;  any  disobedience  was 
always  to  a  particular  ordinance,  not  to  the 
system. 

The  trader  having  obtained  his  permit, 
built  his  boats, — whether  light,  roomy, 
bateaux  made  of  boards,  or  birch-bark  ca- 

*  State  Department  MSS..  No.  150.  Vol.  III., 
p.  519.  Letter  of  Joseph  St.  Marin,  Aug.  23, 
1788. 

14  Do.,  p.  89,  Harmar's  letter. 


THE  WEST  65 

noes,  or  pirogues,  which  were  simply  hol- 
lowed out  logs.  He  loaded  them  with  paint, 
powder,  bullets,  blankets,  beads,  and  rum, 
manned  them  with  hardy  voyageurs,  trained 
all  their  lives  in  the  use  of  pole  and  paddle, 
and  started  off  up  or  down  the  Mississippi,25 
the  Ohio,  or  the  Wabash,  perhaps  making  a 
long  carry  or  portage  over  into  the  Great 
Lakes.  It  took  him  weeks,  often  months,  to 
get  to  the  first  trading-point,  usually  some 
large  winter  encampment  of  Indians.  He 
might  visit  several  of  these,  or  stay  the  whole 
winter  through  at  one,  buying  the  furs.20 
Many  of  the  French  coureurs  des  bois,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  traverse  the  wilderness,  and 
who  were  expert  trappers,  took  up  their 
abode  with  the  Indians,  taught  them  how  to 
catch  the  sable,  fisher,  otter,  and  beaver,  and 
lived  among  them  as  members  of  the  tribe, 
marrying  copper-colored  squaws,  and  rear- 
ing dusky  children.  When  the  trader  had 
exchanged  his  goods  for  the  peltries  of  these 
red  and  white  skin-hunters,  he  returned  to 
his  home,  having  been  absent  perhaps  a  year 
or  eighteen  months.  It  was  a  hard  life; 
many  a  trader  perished  in  the  wilderness  by 
cold  or  starvation,  by  an  upset  where  the  icy 
current  ran  down  the  rapids  like  a  mill-race, 
by  the  attack  of  a  hostile  tribe,  or  even  in  a 
drunken  brawl  with  the  friendly  Indians, 

18  Do.,  p.  519.    Letter  of  Joseph  St.  Marin. 
"  Do.,  p.  89. 


66  THE   ll'IXXIXG  OP 

when  voyageur,  half-breed,  and  Indian  alike 
had  been  frenzied  by  draughts  of  fiery 
liquor.-7 

Next  to  the  commandant  in  power  came 
the  priest.  He  bore  unquestioned  rule  over 
his  congregation,  but  only  within  certain  lim- 
its ;  for  the  French  of  the  backwoods,  leav- 
ened by  the  presence  among  them  of  so  many 
wild  and  bold  spirits,  could  not  be  treated 
quite  in  the  same  way  as  the  more  peaceful 
lubitants  of  Lower  Canada.  The  duty  of 
the  priest  was  to  look  after  the  souls  of  his 
sovereign's  subjects,  to  baptize,  marry,  and 
bury  them,  to  confess  and  absolve  them,  and 
keep  them  from  backsliding,  to  say  mass,  and 
to  receive  the  salary  due  him  for  celebrating 
divine  service;  but,  though  his  personal  in- 
fluence was  of  course  very  great,  he  had  no 
temporal  authority,  and  could  not  order  his 
people  either  to  fight  or  to  work.  Still 
less  could  he  dispose  of  their  land,  a  privi- 
lege inhering  onlv  in  the  commandant  and  in 
the  commissaries  of  the  villages,  where  they 
were  expressly  authorized  so  to  do  by  the 
sovereign.28 

"Journal  of  Joan  Bapti-te  Perrault,  in  1783;  in 
"Indian  Tribes,"  by  Hcnrv  R.  Sclioolcraft,  Part 
III,  Philadelphia.  1855.  Sec  also  Billon.  48.4.  for 
an  interesting  account  of  the  adventures  of  Gra- 
tiot,  who  afterwards,  under  American  rule,  built 
up  a  great  fur  hu-iness.  and  drove  a  flourishintr 
trade  with  Europe,  a.-  well  a-  the  towns  of  the 
American  seaboard. 

"  State  Department  MSS.,  No.  48.  p.  25.  A 
petition  concerning  a  case  in  point,  affecting  the 
Priest  Gibault. 


THE  WEST  67 

The  average  inhabitant,  though  often 
loose  in  his  morals,  was  very  religious.  He 
was  superstitious  also,  for  he  firmly  helieved 
in  omens,  charms,  and  witchcraft,  and  when 
worked  upon  by  his  dread  of  the  unseen  and 
the  unknown  he  sometimes  did  terrible 
deeds,  as  will  be  related  farther  on. 

Under  ordinary  circumstances  he  was  a 
good-humored,  kindly  man,  always  polite — 
his  manners  offering  an  agreeable  contrast  to 
those  of  some  of  our  own  frontiersmen, — 
with  a  ready  smile  and  laugh,  and  ever  eager 
to  join  in  any  merrymaking.  On  Sundays 
and  fast-days  he  was  summoned  to  the  little 
parish  church  by  the  tolling  of  the  old  bell  in 
the  small  wooden  belfry.  The  church  was  a 
rude  oblong  building,  the  walls  made  out  of 
peeled  logs,  thrust  upright  in  the  ground, 
chinked  with  moss  and  coated  with  clay  or 
cement.  Thither  every  man  went,  clad  in  a 
capote  or  blanket  coat,  a  bright  silk  hand- 
kerchief knotted  round  his  head,  and  his  feet 
shod  with  moccasins  or  strong  rawhide  san- 
dals. If  young,  he  walked  or  rode  a  shaggy 
pony ;  if  older,  he  drove  his  creaking,  spring- 
less  wooden  cart,  untired  and  unironed,  in 
which  family  sat  on  stools.20 

"  "  History  of  Vincennes,"  by  Judge  John  Law. 
Vinccnnes,  1858,  pp.  18  and  140.  They  are  just 
such  carts  as  I  have  seen  myself  in  the  valley  of 
the  Red  River,  and  in  the  big  bend  of  the  Mis- 
souri, carrying  all  the  worldly  goods  of  their 
owners,  the  French  Metis.  These  Metis, — ex- 
trappers,  ex-buffalo  runners,  and  small  farmers, — • 
are  the  best  representatives  of  the  old  French  of 


68  THE   WINXIXG  OP 

The  grades  of  society  were  much  more 
clearly  marked  than  in  similar  communities 
of  our  own  people.  The  gentry,  although 
not  numerous,  possessed  unquestioned  social 
and  political  headship  and  were  the  military 
leaders;  although  of  course  they  did  not' 
have  any  thing  like  such  marked  preem- 
inence of  position  as  in  Ouehec  or  Xew  Or- 
leans, where  the  conditions  were  more  like 
those  ohtaining  in  the  old  world.  There  was 
verv  little  education.  The  common  people 
were  rarely  versed  in  the  mysteries  of  read- 
ing and  writing,  and  even  the  wives  of  the 
gentry  were  often  only  ahle  to  make  their 
marks  instead  of  signing  their  names.30 

The    little   villages    in    which    they    dwelt 

the  west;  they  arc  a  little  less  civilized,  they  have 
somewhat  more  Indian  hlood  in  their  veins,  hut 
they  are  substantially  the  same  people.  It  may  be 
noted  that  the  herd-  of  InifTalocs  that  during  the 
la-t  century  thronged  the  plains  of  what  are  now 
the  States  of  Illinois  and  Indiana  furnished  to  the 
French  of  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes  their  winter 
meat:  exactly  a-  during  the  present  century  the 
Saskatchewan  M<'ti-  lived  on  the  wild  herds  until 
they  were  exterminated. 

31  See  the  li-t-  of  -ignature-  in  the  State  De- 
partment MSS,.  al-o  Mason's  Ka-ka-kia  Parish 
Records  and  Law'-  Yinrenm-.  A-  an  example; 
the  wife  of  the  Chevalier  Yin-ennc  (who  gave 
his  name  to  Yincenne-.  and  afterward-  fell  in  the 
battle  where  the  Crrcka<-aw-  ronb-d  the  Northern 
French  and  their  Indian  allies),  was  only  ahle  to 
make  her  mark. 

Clark  in  his  letters  -everal  time^  mentions  the 
"  gentry."  in  term-  that  imply  their  standing 
above  the  rest  of  the  people. 


THE  WEST  69 

were  pretty  places,31  with  wide,  shaded 
streets.  The  nouses  lay  far  apart,  often  a 
couple  of  hundred  feet  from  one  another. 
They  were  built  of  heavy  hewn  timbers; 
those  of  the  better  sort  were  furnished  with 
broad  verandas,  and  contained  large,  low- 
ceilinged  rooms,  the  high  mantel-pieces  and 
the  mouldings  of  the  doors  and  windows  be- 
ing made  of  curiously  carved  wood.  Each 
village  was  defended  by  a  palisaded  fort  and 
block-houses,  and  was  occasionally  itself  sur- 
rounded by  a  high  wooden  stockade.  The 
inhabitants  were  extravagantly  fond  of  mu- 
sic and  dancing  32 ;  marriages  and  christen- 
ings were  seasons  of  merriment,  when  the 
fiddles  were  scraped  all  night  long,  while  the 
moccasined  feet  danced  deftly  in  time  to  the 
music. 

Three  generations  of  isolated  life  in  the 
wilderness  had  greatly  changed  the  charac- 
ters of  these  groups  of  traders,  trappers, 
bateau-men,  and  adventurous  warriors.  It 
was  inevitable  that  they  should  borrow  many 
traits  from  their  savage  friends  and  neigh- 
bors. Hospitable,  but  bigoted  to  their  old 
customs,  ignorant,  indolent,  and  given  to 
drunkenness,  they  spoke  a  corrupt  jargon  of 
the  French  tongue ;  the  common  people  were 
even  beginning  to  give  up  reckoning  time 
by  months  and  years,  and  dated  events,  as 
the  Indians  did,  with  reference  to  the  phe- 

11  State  Department  MSS.,  No.  150,  Vol.  Ill, 
p.  89- 

11 "  Journal  of  Jean  Baptiste  Perrault,"  1783. 


70  THE  WINNING  OF 

nomena  of  nature,  such  as  the  time  of  the 
floods,  the  maturing  of  the  green  corn,  or  the 
ripening  of  the  strawberries.33  All  their  at- 
tributes seemed  alien  to  the  polished  army- 
officers  of  old  France"4 ;  they  had  but  little 
more  in  common  with  the  latter  than  with 
the  American  backwoodsmen.  But  they  had 
kept  many  valuable  qualities,  and,  in  especial, 
they  were  brave  and  hardy,  and,  after  their 
own  fashion,  good  soldiers.  They  had 
fought  valiantly  beside  King  Louis'  mus- 
keteers, and  in  alliance  with  the  painted  war- 
riors of  the  forest :  later  on  they  served, 
though  perhaps  with  less  heart,  under  the 
gloomy  ensign  of  Spain,  shared  the  fate  of 
the  red-coated  grenadiers  of  King  George, 
or  followed  the  lead  of  the  tall  Kentucky 
riflemen. 

""Voyage  en  Amerique  "  (1796),  General 
Victor  Collot,  Paris  1804,  p.  318. 

14  Do.  Collot  calls  them  "  un  compose  cle  trai- 
tcurs,  d'aventuriers,  de  courcurs  <le  boK  raincurs, 
et  de  gucrriers;  ignorans,  superstiticux  ct  en- 
tetes,  qu'aucunes  fatigues,  aucunes  privations, 
aucunes  dangers  nc  pen vent  arreter  dans  lours 
enterprises,  qu'ils  mcttent  toujours  fin;  ils  n'ont 
conserve  dcs  vertus  franchises  que  le  courage." 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  APPALACHIAN    CONFEDERACIES, 


WHEN  we  declarer!  ourselves  an  inde- 
pendent nation  there  were  on  our 
borders  three  groups  of  Indian  peo- 
ples. The  northernmost  were  the  Iroquois 
or  Six  Nations,  who  dwelt  in  New  York,  and 
stretched  down  into  Pennsylvania.  They  had 
been  for  two  centuries  the  terror  of  every 
other  Indian  tribe  east  of  the  Mississippi,  as 
well  as  of  the  whites  ;  but  their  strength  had 
already  departed.  They  numbered  only  some 
ten  or  twelve  thousand  all  told,  and  though 
they  played  a  bloody  part  in  the  Revolution- 
ary struggle,  it  was  merely  as  subordinate 
allies  of  the  British.  It  did  not  lie  in  their 
power  to  strike  a  really  decisive  blow.  Their 
chastisement  did  not  result  in  our  gaining 
new  territory  ;  nor  would  a  failure  to  chastise 
them  have  affected  the  outcome  of  the  war 
nor  the  terms  of  peace.  Their  fate  was 
bound  up  with  that  of  the  king's  cause  in 
America  and  was  decided  wholly  by  events 
unconnected  with  their  own  success  or  de- 
feat. 
The  very  reverse  was  the  case  with  the 


72  THE  U'lXXIXG  OF 

Indians,  tenfold  more  numerous,  who  lived 
along  our  western  frontier.  There  they  were 
themselves  our  main  opponents,  the  British 
simply  acting  as  their  supporters;  and  in- 
stead of  their  fate  being  settled  by  the  treaty 
of  peace  with  Britain,  they  continued  an 
active  warfare  for  twelve  years  after  it  had 
been  signed.  Had  they  defeated  us  in  the 
early  years  of  the  contest,  it  is  more  than 
probable  that  the  Allcghanies  would  have 
been  made  our  western  boundary  at  the 
peace.  \Ye  won  from  them  vast  stretches  of 
territory  because  we  had  beaten  their  war- 
riors, and  we  could  not  have  won  it  other- 
wise: whereas  the  territory  of  the  Iroquois 
was  lost,  not  because  of  their  defeat,  but  be- 
cause of  the  defeat  of  the  British. 

There  were  two  great  groups  of  these  In- 
dians, the  ethnic  corresponding  roughly  with 
the  geographic  division.  In  the  northwest, 
between  the  Ohio  and  the  Lakes,  were  the 
Algonquin  tribes,  generally  banded  loosely 
together;  in  the  southwest,  between  the 
Tennessee — then  called  the  Cherokee — and 
the  Gulf,  the  so-called  Appalachians  lived. 
Between  them  lay  a  vast  and  beautiful  region 
where  no  tribe  dared  dwell,  but  into  which  all 
ventured  now  and  then  for  war  and  hunt- 
ing. 

The  southwestern  Indians  were  called  Ap- 
palachians by  the  olden  writers,  because  this 
was  the  name  then  given  to  the  southern 
AlU-ghanies.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  term  has 
any  exact  racial  significance;  but  it  serves 


THE  WEST 


73 


very  well  to  indicate  a  number  of  Indian  na- 
tions whose  system  of  government,  ways  of 
life,  customs,  and  general  culture  were  much 
alike,  and  whose  civilization  was  much 
higher  than  was  that  of  most  other  Amer- 
ican tribes. 

The  Appalachians  were  in  the  barbarous, - 
rather  than  in  the  merely  savage  state.  They 
were  divided  into  five  lax  confederacies :  the 
Cherokees,  Chickasaws,  Choctaws,  Creeks, 
and  Seminoles.  The  latter  were  merely  a 
southern  offshoot  of  the  Creeks  or  Musco- 
gees.  They  were  far  more  numerous  than 
the  northwestern  Indians,  were  less  nomadic, 
and  in  consequence  had  more  definite  posses- 
sion of  particular  localities ;  so  that  their 
lands  were  more  densely  peopled. 

In  all  they  amounted  to  perhaps  seventy 
thousand  souls.1  It  is  more  difficult  to  tell 

1  Letters  of  Commissioners  Hawkins,  Pickens, 
Martin,  and  Mclntosh,  to  the  President  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  Dec.  2,  1785.  (Given  in 
Senate  Documents,  33d  Congress,  2d  session, 
Boundary  between  Ga.  and  Fla.)  They  give 
14,200  "  gun-men."  and  say  that  "  at  a  moderate 
calculation "  there  arc  four  times  as  many  old 
men,  women,  and  children,  as  there  are  gun-men. 
The  estimates  of  the  numbers  are  very  numerous 
and  very  conflicting.  After  carefully  consulting 
all  accessible  authorities,  I  have  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  above  is  probably  pretty  near  the 
truth.  It  is  the  deliberate,  official  opinion  of  four 
trained  experts,  who  had  ample  opportunities  for 
investigation,  and  who  examined  the  matter  with 
care.  But  it  is  very  possible  that  in  alloting  the 
several  tribes  their  numbers  they  err  now  and 
then,  as  the  boundaries  between  the  tribes  shifted 


74  THE   ll'IXXIXG  OF 

the  numbers  of  the  different  tribes ;  for  the 
division  lines  between  them  were  very  ill  de- 
fined, and  were  subject  to  wide  fluctuations. 
Thus  the  Creeks,  the  most  formidable  of  all, 
were  made  up  of  many  bands,  differing  from 
each  other  both  in  race  and  speech.  The 
languages  of  the  Chickasaws  and  Choctaws 
did  not  differ  more  from  the  tongue  of  the 
Cherokees,  than  the  two  divisions  of  the  lat- 
ter did  from  each  other.  The  Cherokees  of 
the  hills,  the  Otari,  spoke  a  dialect  that  could 
not  be  understood  by  the  Cherokees  of  the 
lowlands,  or  Erati.  Towns  or  bands  contin- 
ually broke  up  and  split  off  from  their  for- 
mer associations,  while  ambitious  and  war- 
like chiefs  kept  forming  nc\v  settlements, 
and  if  successful  drew  large  numbers  of 
young  warriors  from  the  older  communities. 
Thus  the  boundary  lines  between  the  con- 
federacies were  ever  shifting.2  Judging 

continually,  and  there  were  always  large  com- 
munitk-s  of  renegades,  such  as  the  Chickamaugas, 
who  were  drawn  from  the  ranks  of  all. 

1  This  is  one  of  t'v  main  reasons  why  the  esti- 
mates of  their  number-  vary  <o  hopelessly.  As  a 
specimen  ca^e,  among  many  others,  compare  the 
estimate  of  Profc^-or  Benj.  Smith  Barton 
("  Origin  of  the  Tr:!>e-  arid  Nations  of  America," 
Phila..  1/98)  with  the  report  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Indian  Affairs  for  1827.  Barton  estimated 
that  in  179.3  the  Appalachian  nations  numbered  in 
all  13.000  warriors;  considering  these  as  one  fifth 
of  the  total  population,  make-  it  fi.'.ooo.  In  18,37 
the  Commissioner  reports  their  numbers  at  65.304 
— almo-t  exactly  the  ^anie.  Probably  both  state- 
ments arc  nearly  correct,  the  natural  rate  of  in- 
crease having  just  about  offset  the  loss  in  con- 


THE  WEST 


75 


from  a  careful  comparison  of  the  different 
authorities,  the  following  estimate  of  the 
numbers  of  the  southern  trihes  at  the  out- 
break of  the  Revolution  may  be  considered 
as  probably  approximately  correct. 

The  Cherokees,  some  twelve  thousand 
strong,3  were  the  mountaineers  of  their  race. 
They  dwelt  among  the  blue-topped  ridges 
and  lofty  peaks  of  the  southern  Alleghanies,4 

sequence  of  a  partial  change  of  home,  and  of 
Jackson's  slaughtering  wars  against  the  Creeks 
and  Seminoles.  But  where  they  agree  in  the  total, 
they  vary  hopelessly  in  the  details.  By  Barton's 
estimate,  the  Cherokees  numbered  but  7,500,  the 
Choctaws  30,000;  by  the  Commissioner's  census 
the  Cherokees  numbered  21,911,  the  Choctaws 
15,000.  It  is  of  course  out  of  the  question  to  be- 
lieve that  while  in  44  years  the  Cherokees  had 
increased  three  fold,  the  Choctaws  had  dimin- 
ished one  half.  The  terms  themselves  must  have 
altered  their  significance  or  else  there  was  ex- 
tensive inter-tribal  migration.  Similarly,  accord- 
ing to  the  reports,  the  Creeks  had  increased  by 
4,000 — the  Seminoles  and  Choctaws  had  dimin- 
ished by  3,000. 

"  Am.  Archives,"  4th  Series,  III.,  790.  Dray- 
ton's  account,  Sept.  23,  '75.  This  was  a  carefully 
taken  census,  made  by  the  Indian  traders.  Apart 
from  the  outside  communities,  such  as  the  Chick- 
amaugas  at  a  later  date,  there  were : 

737  gun-men  in  the  10  overhill  towns 

908  "       23  middle 

356  "        9  lower 

a  total  of  2,021  warriors.  The  outlying  towns, 
who  had  cast  off  their  allegiance  for  the  time 
being,  would  increase  the  amount  by  three  or  four 
hundred  more. 

4  "  History  of  the  American  Indians,  Particu- 
larly Those  Nations  Adjoining  to  the  Mississippi, 


7  6  THE  WINNING  OF 

in  the  wild  and  picturesque  region  where  the 
present  States  of  Tennessee,  Alabama, 
Georgia,  and  the  Carolinas  join  one  another. 

To  the  west  of  the  Cherokees,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi,  were  the  Chickasaws,  the 
smallest  of  the  southern  nations,  numbering 
at  the  outside  but  four  thousand  souls  5 ;  but 
they  were  also  the  bravest  and  most  warlike, 
and  of  all.  these  tribal  confederacies  theirs 
was  the  only  one  which  was  at  all  closely  knit 
together.  The  whole  tribe  acted  in  unison. 
In  consequence,  though  engaged  in  incessant 
warfare  with  the  far  more  numerous  Choc- 
taws,  Creeks,  and  Cherokees,  they  more  than 
held  their  own  against  them  all ;  besides  hav- 
ing inflicted  on  the  French  two  of  the  bloodi- 
est defeats  they  ever  suffered  from  Indians. 
Most  of  the  remnants  of  the  Natchez,  the 
strange  sun-worshippers,  had  taken  refuge 
with  the  Chickasaws  and  become  completely 
identified  with  them,  when  their  own  nation- 
ality was  destroyed  by  the  arms  of  New  Or- 
leans 

The  Choctaws,  the  rudest  and  historically 

East  and  West  Florida,  Georgia,  South  and 
North  Carolina,  and  Virginia."  By  James  Adair 
Can  Indian  trader  and  re-ident  in  the  country  for 
forty  years),  London,  1775.  A  very  valuable  book, 
but  a  pood  deal  marred  by  the  author's  irrepres- 
sible desire  to  twi^t  every  Indian  utterance,  habit 
and  ceremony  into  a  proof  that  they  are  de- 
scended from  the  Ten  Lost  Tribes.  He  gives 
the  number  of  Cherokee  warriors  at  2.300. 

'Hawkins,  Pickens,  Martin,  and  Mclntosh,  in 
their  letter,  give  them  800  warriors ;  most  other 
estimates  make  the  number  smaller. 


THE  WEST  77 

the  least  important  of  these  Indians,  lived 
south  of  the  Chickasaws.  They  were  prob- 
ably rather  less  numerous  than  the  Creeks.8 
Though  accounted  brave  they  were  treacher- 
ous and  thievish,  and  wrere  not  as  well  armed 
as  the  others.  They  rarely  made  war  or 
peace  as  a  unit,  parties  frequently  acting  in 
conjunction  with  some  of  the  rival  Euro- 
pean powers,  or  else  joining  in  the  plunder- 
ing inroads  made  by  the  other  Indians  upon 
the  white  settlements.  Beyond  thus  furnish- 
ing auxiliaries  to  our  other  Indian  foes,  they 
had  little  to  do  with  our  history. 

The  Muscogees  or  Creeks  were  the  strong- 
est of  all.  Their  southern  bands,  living  in 
Florida,  were  generally  considered  as  a  sepa- 
rate confederacy,  under  the  name  of  Semi- 
noles.  They  numbered  between  twenty-five 
and  thirty  thousand  souls,7  three  fourths  of 
them  being  the  Muscogees  proper,  and  the 
remainder  Seminoles.  They  dwelt  south  of 

6  Almost  all  the  early  writers  make  them  more 
numerous.  Adair  gives  them  4,500  warriors, 
Hawkins  6,000.  But  much  less  seems  to  have  been 
known  about  them  than  about  the  Creeks,  Chero- 
kees,  and  Chickasaws ;  and  most  early  estimates 
of  Indians  were  largest  when  made  of  the  least- 
known  tribes.  Adair's  statement  is  probably  the 
most  trustworthy.  The  first  accurate  census 
showed  the  Creeks  to  be  more  numerous. 

'  Hawkins,  Pickens,  etc.,  make  them  "  at  least  " 
27,000  in  1789;  the  Indian  report  for  1837  make 
them  26.844.  During  the  half  century  they  had 
suffered  from  devastating  wars  and  forced  re- 
movals, and  had  probably  slightly  decreased  in 
number.  In  Adair's  time  their  population  was  in- 
creasing. 


7  8  THE  WINNING  OF 

the  Cherokees  and  cast  of  the  Choctaws,  ad- 
joining the  Georgians. 

The  Creeks  and  Cherokees  were  thus  by 
their  position  the  barrier  tribes  of  the  South, 
who  had  to  stand  the  brunt  of  our  advance, 
and  who  acted  as  a  buffer  between  us  and 
the  Frencli  and  Spaniards  of  the  Gulf  and 
the  lower  Mississippi.  Their  fate  once  de- 
cided, that  of  the  Chickasaws  and  Choctaws 
inevitably  followed. 

The  customs  and  the  political  and  social 
systems  of  these  two  tribes  were  very  sim- 
ilar; and  those  of  their  two  western  neigh- 
bors were  merely  ruder  copies  thereof.  They 
were  very  much  further  advanced  than  were 
the  Algonquin  nations  of  the  north. 

Unlike  most  mountaineers  the  Cherokees 
were  not  held  to  be  very  formidable  fighters, 
when  compared  with  their  fellows  of  the 
lowlands.8  In  1760  and  1761  they  had 
waged  a  fierce  war  with  the  whites,  had  rav- 
aged the  Carolina  borders,  had  captured 
British  forts,  and  successfully  withstood 
British  armies ;  but  though  they  had  held 
their  own  in  the  field,  it  had  been  at  the  cost 
of  ruinous  losses.  Since  that  period  they 
had  been  engaged  in  long  wars  with  the 
Chickasaws  and  Creeks,  and  had  been 
worsted  by  both.  Moreover,  they  had  been 
much  harassed  by  the  northern  Indians  So 

' "  Am.  Archives,"  5th  Series,  I.,  95.  Letter  of 
Charles  Lee. 


THE  WEST  79 

they  were  steadily  declining  in  power  and 
numbers.9 

Though  divided  linguistically  into  two 
races,  speaking  different  dialects,  the  Otari 
and  Erati,  the  political  divisions  did  not  fol- 
low the  lines  of  language.  There  were  three 
groups  of  towns,  the  Upper,  Lower,  and 
Middle;  and  these  groups  often  acted  inde- 
pendently of  one  another.  The  Upper  towns 
lay  for  the  most  part  on  the  Western  Waters, 
as  they  were  called  by  the  Americans, — the 
streams  running  into  the  Tennessee.  Their 
inhabitants  were  known  as  Overhill  Chero- 
kees  and  were  chiefly  Otari ;  but  the  towns 
were  none  of  them  permanent,  and  sometimes 
shifted  their  positions,  even  changing  from 
one  group  to  another.  The  Lower  towns, 
inhabited  by  the  Erati,  lay  in  the  flat  lands 
of  upper  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  and 
were  the  least  important.  The  third  group, 
larger  than  either  of  the  others  and  lying 
among  the  hills  and  mountains  between 
them,  consisted  of  the  Middle  towns.  Its 
borders  were  ill-marked  and  were  ever 
shifting. 

Thus  the  towns  of  the  Cherokees  stretched 
from  the  high  upland  region,  where  rise  the 
loftiest  mountains  of  eastern  America,  to  the 
warm,  level,  low  country,  the  land  of  the 
cypress  and  the  long-leaved  pine.  Each  vil- 
lage stood  by  itself,  in  some  fertile  river- 

8  Adair,  227.     Bartram,  390. 


8o  THE   WINDING  OF 

bottom,  with  around  it  apple  orchards  and 
fields  of  maze.  Lik-e  the  other  southern  In- 
dians, the  Cherokees  were  more  industrious 
than  their  northern  neighbors,  lived  by  till- 
age and  agriculture  as  much  as  by  hunting, 
and  kept  horses,  hogs,  and  poultry.  The 
oblong,  story-high  houses  were  made  of 
peeled  logs,  morticed  into  each  other  and 
plastered  with  clay ;  while  the  roof  was  of 
chestnut  bark  or  of  big  shingles.  Near  to 
each  stood  a  small  cabin,  partly  dug  out  of 
the  ground,  and  in  consequence  very  warm  ; 
to  this  the  inmates  retired  in  winter,  for 
they  were  sensitive  to  cold.  In  the  centre 
of  each  village  stood  the  great  council- 
house  or  rotunda,  capable  of  containing  the 
whole  population ;  it  was  often  thirty  feet 
high,  and  sometimes  stood  on  a  raised 
mound  of  earth.10 

The  Cherokees  were  a  bright,  intelligent 
race,  better  fitted  to  "  follow  the  white  man's 
road  "  than  any  other  Indians.  Like  their 
neighbors,  they  were  exceedingly  fond  of 
games  of  chance  and  skill,  as  well  as  of 
athletic  sports.  One  of  the  most  striking 
of  their  national  amusements  was  the  kind 
of  ball-play  from  which  we  derive  the  game 
of  lacrosse.  The  implements  consisted  of 
ball  sticks  or  rackets,  two  feet  long,  strung 
with  raw-hide  webbing,  and  of  a  deer-skin 
ball,  stuffed  with  hair,  so  as  to  be  very  solid, 
and  about  the  size  of  a  base  ball.  Some- 

"Bartram,  365. 


THE  WEST  8 1 

times  the  game  was  played  by  fixed  num- 
bers, sometimes  by  all  the  young  men  of  a 
village ;  and  there  were  often  tournaments 
between  different  towns  and  even  different 
tribes.  The  contests  excited  the  most  in- 
tense interest,  were  waged  with  desperate 
resolution,  and  were  preceded  by  solemn 
dances  and  religious  ceremonies ;  they  were 
tests  of  tremendous  physical  endurance,  and 
were  often  very  rough,  legs  and  arms  being 
occasionally  broken.  The  Choctaws  were 
considered  to  be  the  best  ball  players.11 

The  Cherokees  were  likewise  fond  of 
dances.  Sometimes  these  were  comic  or  las- 
civious, sometimes  they  were  religious  in 
their  nature,  or  were  undertaken  prior  to 
starting  on  the  war-trail.  Often  the  dances 
of  the  young  men  and  maidens  were  very 
picturesque.  The  girls,  dressed  in  white, 
with  silver  bracelets  and  gorgets,  and  a  pro- 
fusion of  gay  ribbons,  danced  in  a  circle 
in  two  ranks ;  the  young  warriors,  clad  in 
their  battle  finery,  danced  in  a  ring  around 
them ;  all  moving  in  rhythmic  step,  as  they 
kept  time  to  the  antiphonal  chanting  12  and 
singing,  the  young  men  and  girls  respond- 
ing alternately  to  each  other. 

The  great  confederacy  of  theMuscogees  or 
Creeks,  consisting  of  numerous  tribes,  speak- 
ing at  least  five  distinct  languages,  lay  in 
a  well-watered  land  of  small  timber."  The 

11  Adair,  Bartram. 

"  Bartram. 

15 "  A  Sketch  of  the  Creek  Country,"  Benjamin 


82  THE  WIXXIXG  OF 

rapid  streams  were  bordered  by  narrow  flats 
of  ricb  soil,  and  were  margined  by  cane- 
brakes  and  reed  beds.  There  were  fine  open 
pastures,  varied  by  sandy  pine  barrens,  by 
groves  of  palmetto  and  magnolia,  and  by 
great  swamps  and  cypress  ponds.  The  game 
bad  been  largely  killed  out,  the  elk  and  buf- 
falo having  been  exterminated  and  even  the 
deer  much  thinned,  and  in  consequence  the 
hunting  parties  were  obliged  to  travel  far 
into  the  uninhabited  region  to  the  northward 
in  order  to  kill  their  winter  supply  of  meat. 
Rut  panthers,  wolves,  and  bears  still  lurked 
in  the  gloomy  fastnesses  of  the  swamps  and 
canebrakes,  whence  tlu-v  emerged  at  night 
to  prey  on  the  hogs  and  cattle.  The  bears 
had  been  exceedingly  abundant  at  one  time, 
so  much  so  as  to  become  one  of  the  main 
props  of  the  Creek  larder,  furnishing  flesh, 
fat.  and  especially  oil  for  cooking  and  other 
purposes;  and  so  valued  were  they  that  the 
Indians  hit  upon  the  novel  plan  of  preserv- 
ing them,  exactly  as  Europeans  preserve 
deer  and  pheasants.  F.arh  town  put  aside 
a  great  tract  of  land  which  was  known  as 
"  the  beloved  bear  ground."  "  where  the 
persimmons,  haws,  chestnuts,  muscadines, 
and  fox  grapes  abounded,  and  let  the  bears 
dwell  there  unmolested,  except  at  certain 
seasons,  when  they  were  killed  in  large  num- 
bers. However,  cattle  were  found  to  be 

U.-i  \vkin  ^.      Tn    mil.    Ga.    Hi<t.    Snr.      Written    in 
i7''s.  Itiit  ri"t  published  till  fifty  years  afterwards. 
11  Uo.,  p.  33- 


THE  WEST  83 

more  profitable  than  bears,  and  the  "be- 
loved bear  grounds "  were  by  degrees 
changed  into  stock  ranges.15 

The  Creeks  had  developed  a  very  curious 
semi-civilization  of  their  own.  They  lived 
in  many  towns,  of  which  the  larger,  or  old 
towns,  bore  rule  over  the  smaller,16  and  alone 
sent  representatives  to  the  general  councils. 
Many  of  these  were  as  large  as  any  in  the 
back  counties  of  the  colonies  1T ;  but  they  were 
shifted  from  time  to  time,  as  the  game  was 
totally  killed  off  and  the  land  exhausted  by 
the  crops.18  The  soil  then  became  covered 
by  a  growth  of  pines,  and  a  so-called  "  old 
field  "  was  formed.  This  method  of  culti- 
vation was,  after  all,  much  like  that  of  the 
southern  whites,  and  the  "  old  fields,"  or 
abandoned  plantations  grown  up  with  pines, 
were  common  in  the  colonies. 

Many    of    the    chiefs    owned    droves    of 

15  The  use  of  the  \vord  "  beloved  "  by  the  Creeks 
was  quite  peculiar.  It  is  evidently  correctly  trans- 
lated, for  Milfort  likewise  gives  it  as  "  bien  aime." 
It  was  the  title  used  for  anything  held  in  especial 
regard,  whether  for  economic  or  supernatural 
reasons;  and  sometimes  it  was  used  as  western 
tribes  use  the  word  ''  medicine  "  at  the  present 
day.  The  old  chiefs  and  conjurers  were  called 
the  "  beloved  old  men  '' ;  what  in  the  west  we 
would  now  call  the  ''  medicine  squaws,"  were 
named  the  ''  beloved  old  women."  It  was  often 
conferred  upon  the  chief  dignitaries  of  the  whites 
in  writing  to  them. 

18  Hawkins,  37. 

17  Bartram,  386.  The  Uchee  town  contained  at 
least  1,500  people. 


8  4  THE   ll'IX  \l.\G  OP 

horses  and  horned  cattle,  sometimes  as  many 
as  five  hundred  head,10  besides  hogs  and 
poultry;  and  some  of  them,  in  addition,  had 
negro  slaves.  Ikit  the  tillage  of  the  land 
was  accomplished  by  communal  labor;  and, 
indeed,  the  government,  as  well  as  the  system 
of  life,  \vas  in  many  respects  a  singular  com- 
pound of  communism  and  extreme  individu- 
alism. The  fields  of  rice,  corn,  tobacco, 
beans,  and  potatoes  were  sometimes  rudely 
fenced  in  with  split  hickory  poles,  and  were 
sometimes  left  tinfenced,  with  huts  or  high 
scaffolds,  where  watchers  kept  guard.  They 
were  planted  when  the  wild  fruit  was  so  ripe 
as  to  draw  off  the  birds,  and  while  ripening 
the  swine  were  kept  penned  up  and  the 
horses  were  tethered  with  tough  bark  ropes. 
Pumpkins,  melons,  mar>h-mallows,  and  sun- 
flowers were  often  grown  between  the  rows 
of  corn.  The  planting  was  done  on  a  given 
day,  the  whole  town  being  summoned;  no 
man  was  expected  or  was  allowed  to  go  out 
hunting.  The  undcr-headman  supervised  the 
work.20 

For  food  they  used  all  these  vegetables, 
as  well  as  beef  and  pork,  and  venison  stewed 
in  bear's  oil  :  they  had  hominy  and  corn- 
cakes,  and  a  coo1  drink  made  from  honey  and 
water.-1  Kside^  another  made  from  fer- 
mented corn,  which  tasted  much  like  cider,22 

19  Hawkins,   30. 
"  Hawkin-.  ,v);  Adair.  408. 
11  Bartram,   184. 
"Milfort,  212. 


THE  WEST  85 

They  sifted  their  flour  in  wicker-work  sieves, 
and  baked  the  bread  in  kettles  or  on  broad, 
thin  stones.  Moreover,  they  gathered  the 
wild  fruits,  strawberries,  grapes,  and  plums, 
in  their  season,  and  out  of  the  hickory-nuts 
they  made  a  thick,  oily  paste,  called  the  hick- 
ory milk. 

Each  town  was  built  round  a  square,  in 
which  the  old  men  lounged  all  day  long,  gos- 
siping and  wrangling.  Fronting  the  square, 
and  surrounding  it,  were  the  four  long,  low 
communal  houses,  eight  feet  high,  sixteen 
feet  deep,  and  forty  to  sixty  in  length.  They 
were  wooden  frames,  supported  on  pine 
posts,  with  roof-tree  and  rafters  of  hickory. 
Their  fronts  were  open  piazzas,  their  sides 
were  lathed  and  plastered,  sometimes  with 
white  marl,  sometimes  with  reddish  clay,  and 
they  had  plank  doors  and  were  roofed  neatly 
with  cypress  bark  or  clapboards.  The  eave 
boards  were  of  soft  poplar.  The  barrier 
towns,  near  white  or  Indian  enemies,  had 
log  houses,  with  portholes  cut  in  the  walls. 

The  communal  houses  were  each  divided 
into  three  rooms.  The  House  of  the  Micos, 
or  Chiefs  and  Headmen,  was  painted  red 
and  fronted  the  rising  sun ;  it  was  highest 
in  rank.  The  Houses  of  the  Warriors  and 
the  Beloved  Men — this  last  being  painted 
white — fronted  south  and  north  respectively, 
while  the  House  of  the  Young  People  stood 
opposite  that  of  the  Micos.  Each  room  was 
divided  into  two  terraces ;  the  one  in  front 
being  covered  with  red  mats,  while  that  in 


86  THE   H'lXXIXC  Ol' 

the  rear,  a  kind  of  raised  dais  or  great 
couch,  was  strewn  with  skins.  They  con- 
tained stools  hewed  out  of  poplar  logs,  and 
chests  made  of  clapboards  sewed  together 
with  buffalo  thongs." 

The  rotunda  or  council-house  stood  near 
the  square  on  the  highest  spot  in  the  village. 
It  was  round,  and  fifty  or  sixty  feet  across, 
with  a  high  peaked  roof ;  the  rafters  were 
fastened  with  splints  and  covered  with  bark. 
A  raised  dais  ran  around  the  wall,  strewed 
with  mats  and  skins.  Sometimes  in  the 
larger  council-houses  there  were  painted 
eagles,  carved  out  of  poplar  wood,  placed 
close  to  the  red  and  white  seats  where  the 
chiefs  and  warriors  sat ;  or  in  front  of  the 
broad  dais  were  great  images  of  the  full  and 
the  half  moon,  colored  white  or  black;  or 
rudely  carved  and  painted  figures  of  the  pan- 
ther, and  of  men  with  buffalo  horns.  The 
tribes  held  in  reverence  both  the  panther  and 
the  rattlesnake. 

The  corn-cribs,  fowl-houses,  and  hot- 
houses or  dug-outs  for  winter  use  were  clus- 
tered near  the  other  cabins. 

Although  in  tillage  they  used  only  the  hoe, 
they  had  made  much  progress  in  some  useful 
arts.  They  spun  the  coarse  wool  of  the  buf- 
falo into  blankets,  which  they  trimmed  with 
beads.  They  wove  the  wild  hemp  in  frames 
and  shuttles.  They  made  their  own  saddles. 

"  Hawkins,  67.  Milfort,  20.3.  Bartram,  386. 
Adair,  418. 


THE  WEST  87 

They  made  beautiful  baskets  of  fine  cane 
splints,  and  very  handsome  blankets  of  tur- 
key feathers ;  while  out  of  glazed  clay  they 
manufactured  bowls,  pitchers,  platters,  and 
other  pottery. 

In  summer  they  wore  buckskin  shirts  and 
breech-clouts ;  in  winter  they  were  clad  in 
the  fur  of  the  bear  and  wolf  or  of  the  shaggy 
buffalo.  They  had  moccasins  of  elk  or  buf- 
falo hide,  and  high  thigh-boots  of  thin  deer- 
skin, ornamented  with  fawns'  trotters,  or 
turkey  spurs  that  tinkled  as  they  walked. 
In  their  hair  they  braided  eagle  plumes,  hawk 
wings,  or  the  brilliant  plumage  of  the  tan- 
ager  and  redbird.  Trousers  or  breeches  of 
any  sort  they  despised  as  marks  of  effemi- 
nacy. 

Vermilion  was  their  war  emblem ;  white 
was  only  \vorn  at  the  time  of  the  Green-Corn 
Dance.  In  each  town  stood  the  war  pole  or 
painted  post,  a  small  peeled  tree-trunk  col- 
ored red.  Some  of  their  villages  were  called 
white  or  peace  towns ;  others  red  or  bloody 
towns.  The  white  towns  were  sacred  to 
peace ;  no  blood  could  be  spilt  within  their 
borders.  They  were  towns  of  refuge,  where 
not  even  an  enemy  taken  in  war  could  be 
slain ;  and  a  murderer  who  fled  thither  was 
safe  from  vengeance.  The  captives  were 
tortured  to  death  in  the  red  towns,  and  it 
was  in  these  that  the  chiefs  and  warriors 
gathered  when  they  w^ere  planning  or  prepar- 
ing for  war. 


88  THE   WINNING  OF 

They  held  great  marriage- feasts ;  the  dead 
were  burned  with  the  goods  they  had  owned 
in  their  lifetime. 

Every  night  all  the  people  of  a  town 
gathered  in  the  council-house  to  dance  and 
sing  and  talk.  Besides  this,  they  held  there 
on  stated  occasions  the  ceremonial  dances: 
such  were  the  dances  of  war  and  of  triumph, 
when  the  warriors,  painted  red  and  black,  re- 
turned, carrying  the  scalps  of  their  slain  foes 
on  branches  of  evergreen  pine,  while  they 
chanted  the  sonorous  song  of  victory  ;  and 
such  was  the  Dance  of  the  Serpent,  the  dance 
of  lawless  love,  where  the  women  and  young 
girls  were  allowed  to  do  whatsoever  they 
listed. 

Once  a  year,  when  the  fruits  ripened,  they 
helcl  the  Green-Corn  Dance,  a  religious  fes- 
tival that  lasted  eight  days  in  the  larger 
towns  and  four  in  the  smaller.  Then  they 
fasted  and  feasted  alternately.  They  drank 
out  of  conch-shells  the  Black  Drink,  a  bit- 
ter beverage  brewed  from  the  crushed  leaves 
of  a  small  shrub.  On  the  third  day  the  high 
priest  or  fire-maker,  the  man  who  sat  in  the 
white  scat,  clad  in  snowy  tunic  and  mocca- 
sins, kindled  the  holy  fire,  fanning  it  into 
flames  with  the  unsullied  wing  of  a  swan, 
and  burning  therein  offerings  of  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  year.  Dance  followed  dance. 
The  beloved  men  and  beloved  women,  the 
priest  and  priestesses,  danced  in  three  rings, 
singing  the  solemn  song  of  which  the  words 
were  never  uttered  at  any  other  time ;  and  at 


THE   WEST  89 

the  end  the  warriors,  in  their  wild  war-gear, 
with  white-plume  head-dresses,  took  part, 
and  also  the  women  and  girls,  decked  in 
their  best,  with  ear-rings  and  armlets,  and 
terrapin  shells  filled  with  pebbles  fastened  to 
the  outside  of  their  legs.  They  kept  time 
with  foot  and  voice ;  the  men  in  deep  tones, 
with  short  accents,  the  women  in  a  shrill 
falsetto ;  while  the  clay  drums,  with  heads 
of  taut  deer-hide,  were  beaten,  the  whistles 
blown,  and  the  gourds  and  calabashes  rat- 
tled, until  the  air  resounded  with  the  deaf- 
ening noise.24 

Though  they  sometimes  burnt  their  pris- 
oners or  violated  captive  women,  they  gen- 
erally were  more  merciful  than  the  northern 
tribes." 

But  their  political  and  military  systems 
could  not  compare  with  those  of  the  r\lgon- 
quins,  still  less  with  those  of  the  Iroquois. 
Their  confederacy  was  of  the  loosest  kind. 
There  was  no  central  authority.  Every  town 
acted  just  as  it  pleased,  making  war  or 
peace  with  the  other  towns,  or  with  whites, 
Choctaws  or  Cherokees.  In  each  there  was 
a  nominal  head  for  peace  and  war,  the  high 
chief  and  the  head  warrior ;  the  former  was 
supposed  to  be  supreme,  and  was  elected  for 
life  from  some  one  powerful  family — as.  for 
instance,  the  families  having  for  their  totems 
the  wind  or  the  eagle.  But  these  chiefs  had 
little  control,  and  could  not  do  much  more 

81  Hawkins  and  Adair,  passim. 
83  Do.    Also  vide  Bartram. 


9° 


THE  WINNING  OF 


than  influence  or  advise  their  subjects;  they 
were  dependent  on  the  will  of  the  majority. 
Each  town  was  a  little  hotbed  of  party  spirit ; 
the  inhabitants  divided  on  almost  every 
question.  If  the  head-chief  was  for  peace, 
but  the  war-chief  nevertheless  went  on  the 
war-path,  there  was  no  way  of  restraining 
him.  It  was  said  that  never,  in  the  memory 
of  the  oldest  inhabitant,  had  half  the  nation 
"  taken  the  war  talk  "  at  the  same  time.*" 
As  a  consequence,  war  parties  of  Creeks 
were  generally  merely  small  bands  of  marau- 
ders, in  search  of  scalps  and  plunder.  In 
proportion  to  its  numbers,  the  nation  never, 
until  1813,  undertook  such  formidable  mili- 
tary enterprises  as  were  undertaken  by  the 
Wyandots,  Shawnees,  and  Delawares ;  and, 
though  very  formidable  individual  fighters, 
even  in  this  respect  it  may  be  questioned  if 
the  Creeks  equalled  the  prowess  of  their 
northern  kinsmen. 

Yet  when  the  Revolutionary  war  broke  out 
the  Creeks  were  under  a  chieftain  whose  con-" 
summate  craft  and  utterly  selfish  but  cool 
and  masterly  diplomacy  enabled  them  for  a 
generation  to  hold  their  own  better  than  any 
other  native  race  against  the  restless  Ameri- 
cans. This  was  the  half-breed  Alexander 
McGillivray,  perhaps  the  most  gifted  man 
who  was  ever  born  on  the  soil  of  Alabama.27 

2"  Hawkins.  29.  70.     Adair,  428. 

"  History  of  Alabama."  by  Albert  James 
Pickett.  Charleston,  1851,  II.,  30.  A  valuable 
work. 


THE  WEST 


91 


His  father  was  a  Scotch  trader,  Lachlan 
McGillivray  by  name,  who  came  when  a  boy 
to  Charleston,  then  the  head-quarters  of  the 
commerce  carried  on  by  the  British  with  the 
southern  Indians.  On  visiting  the  traders' 
quarter  of  the  town,  the  young  Scot  was 
strongly  attracted  by  the  sight  of  the. 
weather-beaten  packers,  with  their  gaudy, 
half-Indian  finery,  their  hundreds  of  pack- 
horses,  their  curious  pack-saddles,  and  their 
bales  of  merchandise.  Taking  service  with 
them,  he  was  soon  helping  to  drive  a  pack- 
train  along  one  of  the  narrow  trails  that 
crossed  the  lonely  pine  wilderness.  To 
strong,  coarse  spirits,  that  were  both  shrewd 
and  daring  and  willing  to  balance  the  great 
risks  incident  to  their  mode  of  life  against  its 
great  gains,  the  business  was  most  alluring. 
Young  Lachlan  rose  rapidly,  and  soon  be- 
came one  of  the  richest  and  most  influen- 
tial traders  in  the  Creek  country. 

Like  most  traders,  he  married  into  the 
tribe,  wooing  and  wedding,  at  the  Hickory 
Ground,  beside  the  Coosa  River,  a  beautiful 
half-breed  girl,  Sehoy  Marchand,  whose 
father  had  been  a  French  officer,  and  whose 
mother  belonged  to  the  powerful  Creek  fam- 
ily of  the  Wind.  There  were  born  to  them 
two  daughters  and  one  son,  Alexander.  All 
the  traders,  though  facing  danger  at  every 
moment,  from  the  fickle  and  jealous  temper 
of  the  savages,  wielded  immense  influence 
over  them,  and  none  more  than  the  elder 
McGillivray,  a  far-sighted,  unscrupulous 


92 


THE   ll'LVXIXG  OF 


Scotchman,  who  sided  alternately  with  the 
French  and  English  interests,  as  best  suited 
his  own  policy  and  fortunes. 

His  son  was  felt  by  the  Creek  to  be  one 
of  themselves.  He  was  born  about  1746,  at 
Little  Tallasee,  on  the  banks  of  the  clear- 
flowing  Coosa,  where  he  lived  till  he  was 
fourteen  years  old,  playing,  fishing,  hunting, 
and  bathing  with  the  other  Indian  boys,  and 
listening  to  the  tales  of  the  old  chiefs  and 
warriors.  He  was  then  taken  to  Charleston, 
where  he  was  well  educated,  being  taught 
Greek  and  Latin,  as  well  as  English  history 
and  literature.  Tall,  dark,  slender,  with 
commanding  figure  and  immovable  face,  of 
cool,  crafty  temper,  with  great  ambition  and 
a  keen  intellect,  he  felt  himself  called  to  play 
no  common  part.  He  disliked  trade,  and  at 
the  first  opportunity  returned  to  his  Indian 
home.  He  had  neither  the  moral  nor  the 
physical  gifts  requisite  for  a  warrior;  but  he 
was  a  consummate  diplomat,  a  born  leader, 
and  perhaps  the  only  man  who  could  have 
used  aright  such  a  rope  of  sand  as  was  the 
Creek  confederacy. 

The  Creeks  claimed  him  as  of  their  own 
blood,  and  instinctively  felt  that  he  was  their 
only  possible  ruler.  He  was  forthwith  chosen 
to  be  their  head  chief.  From  that  time  on 
he  remained  among  them,  at  one  or  the  other 
of  his  plantations,  his  largest  and  his  real 
home  being  at  Little  Tallasee.  where  he  lived 
in  barbaric  comfort,  in  a  great  roomy  log- 
house  with  a  stone  chimney,  surrounded  by 


THE  WEST  93 

the  cabins  of  his  sixty  negro  slaves.  He 
was  supported  by  many  able  warriors,  both 
of  the  half  and  the  full  blood.  One  of  them 
is  worthy  of  passing  mention.  This  was  a 
young  French  adventurer,  Milfort,  who  in 
1776  journeyed  through  the  insurgent  colo- 
nies and  became  an  adopted  son  of  the  Creek 
nation.  He  first  met  McGillivray,  then  in  his 
early  manhood,  at  the  town  of  Coweta,  the 
great  wartown  on  the  Chattahoochee,  where 
the  half-breed  chief,  seated  on  a  bear-skin  in 
the  council-house,  surrounded  by  his  wise 
men  and  warriors,  was  planning  to  give  aid 
to  the  British.  Afterwards  he  married  one 
of  McGilivray's  sisters,  whom  he  met  at  a 
great  dance — a  pretty  girl,  clad  in  a  short  silk 
petticoat,  her  chemise  of  fine  linen  clasped 
with  silver,  her  car-rings  and  bracelets  of 
the  same  metal,  and  with  bright-colored  rib- 
bons in  her  hair.28 

28  Milfort,  23,  326.  Milfort's  book  is  very  inter- 
esting, but  as  the  man  himself  was  evidently  a 
hopeless  liar  and  braggart,  it  can  only  be  trusted 
where  it  was  not  for  his  interest  to  tell  a  false- 
hood. His  book  was  written  after  McGillivray's 
death,  the  object  being  to  claim  for  himself  the 
glory  belonging  to  the  half-breed  chief.  ITe  in- 
sisted that  he  was  the  war-chief,  the  arm,  and 
McGillivray  merely  the  head,  and  boasts  of  IT'S 
numerous  successful  war  enterprises.  But  the  fact 
is,  that  during  this  whole  time  the  Creeks  per- 
formed no  important  stroke  in  war;  the  successful 
resistance  to  American  encroachments  was  due  to 
the  diplomacy  of  the  son  of  Sehoy.  Moreover, 
Milfort's  accounts  of  his  own  war  deeds  arc 
mainly  sheer  romancing.  He  appears  simply  to 
have  been  one  of  a  score  of  war  chiefs,  and  there 


cJ4  THE   U'L\7.\L\G  OF 

The  task  set  to  the  son  of  Sehoy  was  one 
of  incredible  difficulty,  for  he  was  head  of  a 
loose  array  of  towns  and  tribes  from  whom 
no  man  could  get  perfect,  and  none  but  him- 
self even  imperfect,  obedience.  The  nation 
could  not  stop  a  town  from  going  to  war, 
nor,  in  turn,  could  a  town  stop  its  own  young 
men  from  committing  ravages.  Thus  the 
\\hites  were  always  being  provoked,  and  the 
frontiersmen  were  molested  as  often  when 
they  were  quiet  and  peaceful  as  when  they 
were  encroaching  on  Indian  land.  The 
Creeks  owed  the  land  which  they  possessed 
to  murder  and  rapine  ;  they  mercilessly  des- 
troyed all  weaker  communities,  red  or  white; 
they  had  no  idea  of  showing  justice  or  gen- 
erosity towards  their  fellows  who  lacked  their 
strength,  and  now  the  measure  they  had 
meted  so  often  to  others  was  at  last  to  be 
meted  to  them.  If  the  whites  treated  them 
well,  it  was  set  down  to  weakness.  It  was 
utterly  impossible  to  restrain  the  young  men 
from  murdering  ami  plundering,  either  the 
neighboring  Indians  or  the  white  settlements. 
Their  one  ideal  of  glory  was  to  get  scalps, 
and  these  the  young  braves  were  sure  to 
seek,  no  matter  how  much  the-  older  and 
cooler  men  might  try  to  prevent  them. 
Whether  war  was  declared  or  not,  made  no 

were  certainly  a  dozen  other  Creek  chiefs,  both 
half-hrccds  and  native-;,  who  were  far  more  for- 
midahle  to  the  frontier  than  he  \va<;  all  their 
name-  were  dreaded  by  the  .-ettlers,  but  his  was 
hardly  known. 


THE  WEST 


95 


difference.  At  one  time  the  English  exerted 
themselves  successfully  to  bring  about  a  peace 
between  the  Creeks  and  Cherokees.  At  its 
conclusion  a  Creek  chief  taunted  the  medi- 
ators as  follows :  "  You  have  sweated  your- 
selves poor  in  our  smoky  houses  to  make 
peace  between  us  and  the  Cherokees,  and 
thereby  enable  our  young  people  to  give  you 
in  a  short  time  a  far  worse  sweat  than  you 
have  yet  had."29  The  result  justified  his 
predictions ;  the  young  men,  having  no  other 
foe,  at  once  took  to  ravaging  the  settlements. 
It  soon  became  evident  that  it  was  hopeless 
to  expect  the  Creeks  to  behave  well  to  the 
whites  merely  because  they  were  themselves 
well  treated,  and  from  that  time  on  the  Eng- 
lish fomented,  instead  of  striving  to  put  a 
stop  to,  their  quarrels  with  the  Choctaws  and 
Chickasaws. 

The  record  of  our  dealings  with  them  must 
in  many  places  be  unpleasant  reading  to  us, 
for  it  shows  grave  wrong-doing  on  our  part ; 
yet  the  Creeks  themselves  lacked  only  the 
power,  but  not  the  will,  to  treat  us  worse  than 
we  treated  them,  and  the  darkest  pages  of 
their  history  recite  the  wrongs  that  we  our- 
selves suffered  at  their  hands. 

"Adair,  279. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ALGONQUIN'S  OF  THE  NORTHWEST, 
1769-1774 

BETWEEN  the  Ohio  and  the  Great 
Lakes,  directly  north  of  the  Appala- 
chian confederacies  and  separated 
from  them  by  the  unpeopled  wilderness  now 
forming  the  States  of  Tennessee  <nid  Ken- 
tucky, dwelt  another  s-.-t  of  Indian  tribes. 
They  were  ruder  in  :ife  and  manners  than 
their  southern  kinsmen,  less  advanced  to- 
wards civilization,  but  also  far  more  warlike  ; 
they  depended  more  on  the  chase  and  fishing, 
and  much  less  on  agriculture;  they  were  sav- 
ages, not  merelv  barbarians;  and  thev  were 
fewer  in  numbers  and  scattered  over  a  wider 
expanse  of  territorv.  i'ut  they  were  farther 
advanced  than  the  almost  puivlv  nomadic 
tribes  of  horse  Indian.-  whom  we  afterwards 
encountered  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Some 
of  their  villages  were  permanent,  at  any  rate 
for  a  term  of  years,  and  near  them  they  cul- 
tivated small  crops  of  corn  and  melons. 
Their  usual  dwelling  was  the  conical  wig- 
wam covered  with  bark,  skins,  or  mats  of 
plaited  reeds  but  in  some  of  the  villages  of 
the  tribes  nearest  the  border  there  were  reg- 
96 


THE  WEST  97 

ular  lockhouses,  copied  from  their  white 
neighbors.  The}-  went  clad  in  skins  or  blan- 
kets; the  men  were  hunters  and  warriors, 
who  painted  their  bodies  and  shaved  from 
their  crowns  all  the  hair  except  the  long 
scalp-lock,  while  the  squaws  were  the  drudges 
who  did  all  the  work. 

Their  relations  with  the  Iroquois,  who 
lay  east  of  them,  were  rarely  very  close,  and 
in  fact  were  generally  hostile.  They  were 
also  usually  at  odds  with  the  southern  In- 
dians, but  among  themselves  they  were  fre- 
quently united  in  time  of  war  into  a  sort 
of  lax  league,  and  were  collectively  desig- 
nated by  the  Americans  as  the  northwest- 
ern Indians.  All  the  tribes  belonged  to  the 
great  Algonquin  family,  with  two  excep- 
tions, the  Winnebagos  and  the  Wyandots. 
The  former,  a  branch  of  the  Dakotahs,  dwelt 
west  of  Lake  Michigan ;  they  came  but  little 
in  contact  with  us,  although  many  of  their 
young  men  and  warriors  joined  their  neigh- 
bors in  all  the  wars  against  us.  The  Wyan- 
dots or  Hurons  lived  near  Detroit  and  along 
the  south  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  and  were  in 
battle  our  most  redoubtable  foes.  They  were 
close  kin  to  the  Iroquois  though  bitter  ene- 
mies to  them,  and  they  shared  the  desperate 
valor  of  these,  their  hostile  kinsfolk,  hold- 
ing themselves  above  the  surrounding  Algon- 
quins,  with  whom,  nevertheless,  they  lived 
in  peace  and  friendship. 

The  Algonquins  were  divided  into  many 
tribes,  of  ever  shifting  size.  It  would  be  im- 


9s  THE  inxxixc  or 

possible  to  place  them  all,  or  indeed  to  enu- 
merate them,  with  any  degree  of  accuracy; 
for  the  tribes  were  continually  splitting  up, 
absorbing  others,  being  absorbed  in  turn,  or 
changing  their  abode,  and,  in  addition,  there 
were  numerous  small  sub-tribes  or  bands  of 
renegades,  which  sometimes  were  and  some- 
times were  not  considered  as  portions  of 
their  larger  neighbors.  Often,  also,  separate 
bands,  which  would  vaguely  regard  them- 
selves as  all  one  nation  in  one  generation, 
would  in  the  next  have  lost  even  this  sense 
of  loose  tribal  unity. 

The  chief  tribes,  however,  were  well 
known  and  occupied  tolerably  definite  loca- 
tions. The  De'.awares  or  Lcni-Lenappe, 
dwelt  farthest  east,  Iving  northwest  of  the 
tipper  Ohio,  their  lands  adjoining  those  of 
the  Senccas,  the  largest  and  most  western- 
most of  the  Six  Nations.  The  Iroquois  had 
been  their  most  relentless  foes  and  oppres- 
sors  in  time  gone  by;  but  on  the  eve  of  the 
Revolution  all  the  border  tribes  were  forget- 
ting their  past  differences  and  were  drawing 
together  to  make  a  stand  against  the  com- 
mon foe.  Thus  it  came  about  that  parties  of 
young  Seneca  braves  fought  with  the  Dela- 
wares  in  all  their  wars  against  us. 

\Yest\vard  of  the  Delawares  lay  the  Shaw- 
nee  villages,  along  the  Scioto  and  on  the 
Pickaway  plains  ;  but  it  mu>t  be  remembered 
that  the  Shawne.es.  Delawares.  and  \Yyan- 
dots  were  closely  united  and  their  villages 
were  often  mixed  in  together.  Still  farther 


THE  WEST 


99 


to  the  west,  the  Miamis  or  Twigtees,  lived 
between  the  Miami  and  the  Wabash,  to- 
gether with  other  associated  tribes,  the 
Piankeshaws  and  the  Weas  or  Ouatinous. 
Farther  still,  around  the  French  villages, 
dwelt  those  scattered  survivors  of  the  Illi- 
nois who  had  escaped  the  dire  fate  which 
befell  their  fellow-tribesmen  because  they 
murdered  Pontiac.  Northward  of  this 
scanty  people  lived  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  and 
around  the  upper  Great  Lakes  the  numerous 
and  powerful  Pottawattamies,  Ottawas,  and 
Chippewas ;  fierce  and  treacherous  warriors, 
who  did  not  till  the  soil,  and  were  hunters 
and  fishers  only,  more  savage  even  than  the 
tribes  that  lay  southeast  of  them.1  In  the 
works  of  the  early  travellers  w<e  read  the 
names  of  many  other  Indian  nations ;  but 
whether  these  were  indeed  separate  peoples, 
or  branches  of  some  of  those  already  men- 
tioned, or  whether  the  different  travellers 
spelled  the  Indian  names  in  widely  different 
ways,  \ve  cannot  say.  All  that  is  certain  is 
that  there  were  many  tribes  and  sub-tribes, 
who  roamed  and  warred  and  hunted  over  the 
fair  lands  now  forming  the  heart  of  our 
mighty  nation,  that  to  some  of  these  tribes 
the  whites  gave  names  and  to  some  they 
did  not,  and  that  the  named  and  the  name- 
less alike  were  swept  down  to  the  same  in- 
evitable doom. 

1  See  papers  by  Stephen  D.  Peet,  on  the  north- 
western tribes,  read  before  the  State  Archaeolog- 
ical Society  of  Ohio,  1878. 


ioo  Tim  inxxfxc  or 

Moreover,  there  were  bands  of  renegades 
or  discontented  Indians,  who  for  some  cause, 
had  severed  their  tribal  connections.  Two 
of  the  most  prominent  of  these  bands  were 
the  Cherokees  and  Mingos,  both  being  noted 
for  their  predatory  and  murderous  nature 
and  their  incessant  raids  on  the  frontier  set- 
tlers. The  Cherokees  were  fugitives  from 
the  rest  of  their  nation,  who  had  fled  north, 
beyond  the  Ohio,  and  dwelt  in  the  land 
shared  by  the  Delawares  and  Shawnecs, 
drawing"  to  themselves  many  of  the  lawless 
young  warriors,  not  onlv  of  these  tribes, 
but  of  the  others  still  farther  off.  The  Min- 
gos  were  likewise  a  mongrel  banditti,  made 
up  of  outlaws  and  wild  spirits  from  among 
the  Wyandots  and  Miamis.  as  well  as  from 
the  Iroquois  and  the  Muncevs  (a' sub-tribe 
of  the  Delawares). 

All  these  northwestern  nations  had  at  one 
time  been  conquered  bv  the  Iroquois,  or  at 
least  they  had  been  defeated,  their  lands 
overrun,  and  th.ev  themselvrs  forced  to  ac- 
knowledge a  vague  over-lordship  on  the  part 
of  their  foes.  l!ut  the  po\\i  r  of  the  Froquois 
was  now  passing  awav  :  when  our  national 
historv  began,  with  the  assembling  of  the 
first  continental  congress,  they  had  ceased  to 
be  a  menace  to  the  western  tribes,  and  the 
latter  no  longer  feared  or  ubevcd  them,  re- 
garding them  merelv  as  a'lies  or  neutrals. 
Yet  not  only  the  Iroquois,  but  their  kin- 
dred folk,  notably  the  \Yyandots.  still 
claimed,  and  received,  for  the  sake  of  their 


THE   WEST  10 1 

ancient  superiority,  marks  of  formal  respect 
from  the  surrounding  Algonquins.  Thus, 
among  the  latter,  the  Leni-Lenappe  pos- 
sessed the  titular  headship,  and  were  called 
''grandfathers"  at  all  the  solemn  councils 
as  well  as  in  the  ceremonious  communica- 
tions that  passed  among  the  trihes ;  yet  in 
turn  they  had  to  use  similar  titles  of  respect 
in  addressing  not  only  their  former  oppres- 
sors, but  also  their  Huron  allies,  who  had  suf- 
fered under  the  same  galling  yoke.2 

The  northwestern  nations  had  gradually 
come  to  equal  the  Iroquois  as  warriors ;  but 
among  themselves  the.  palm  was  still  held  by 
the  Wyandots,  who,  although  no  more  formi- 
dable than  the  others  as  regards  skill,  hardi- 
hood, and  endurance,  nevertheless  stood 
alone  in  being  willing  to  suffer  heavy  pun- 
ishment in  order  to  \vin  a  victory.3 

The  \Yyandots  had  been  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  French  Jesuits,  and  were  nom- 
inally Christians  4 ;  and  though  the  attempt 
to  civilize  them  had  not  been  very  success- 

J  Barton,  xxv. 

1  General  \V.  H.  Harrison  ,"  Aborigines  of  the 
Ohio  Valley.''  Old  "  Tippccanoe  "  was  the  best 
possible  authority  for  their  courage. 

* "  Remarkable  Occurrences  in  the  Life  and 
Travels  of  Col.  Tames  Smith,"  etc.,  written  by 
himself,  Lexington,  Ky.,  1/99.  Smith  is  our  best 
contemporary  authority  on  Indian  warfare ;  lie 
lived  with  them  for  several  years,  and  fought 
them  in  many  campaigns.  Besides  several  edi- 
tions of  the  above,  he  also  published  in  1812,  at 
Paris,  Ky.,  a  "  Treatise "  on  Indian  warfare, 
which  holds  much  the  ;amc'  matter. 


,o:?  THE  jr/.v.vm;  01- 

ful,  and  they  remained  in  most  respects  pre- 
cisely like  the  Indians  around  them,  there 
had  been  at  least  one  point  gained,  for  they 
were  not,  as  a  rule,  nearly  so  cruel  to  their 
prisoners.  Thus  they  surpassed  their  neigh- 
bors in  mercifulness  as  well  as  valor.  All 
the  Algonquin  tribes  stood,  in  this  respect 
much  on  the  same  plane.  The  Delawares, 
whose  fate  it  had  been  to  be  ever  buffeted 
about  by  both  the  whites  and  the  reds,  had 
long  cowered  under  the  Iroquois  terror,  but 
thev  had  at  last  shaken  it  off.  had  reasserted 
the  superiority  which  tradition  says  they 
once  before  held^  and  had  become  a  formida- 
ble and  warlike  race.  Indeed  it  is  curious 
to  study  how  the  Delawares  have  changed  in 
respect  to  their  martial  prowess  since  the 
days  when  the  whites  first  came  in  contact 
with  them.  They  were  then  not  accounted  a 
formidable  people,  and  were  not  feared  by 
anv  of  their  neighbors.  15 y  the  time  the 
Revolution  broke  out  thev  had  become  bet- 
ter warriors,  and  during  the  twentv  years' 
Indian  warfare  that  ensued  were  as  formida- 
ble as  most  of  the  other  redskins.  But 
when  moved  west  of  the  Mississippi,  instead 
of  their  spirit  being  broken,  thev  became 
more  warlike  than  ever,  and  throughout  the 
present  century  they  have  Km  the  most  re- 
nowned fighters  of  all  the  Indian  peoples, 
and,  moreover,  they  have  been  celebrated  for 
their  roving,  adventurous  nature.  Their 
numbers  have  steadily  dwindled,  owing  to 


THE   WEST  103 

their  incessant  wars  and  to  the  dangerous 
nature  of  their  long  roamings.5 

It  is  impossible  to  make  any  but  the  rough- 
est guess  at  the  numbers  of  these  northwest- 
ern Indians.  It  seems  probable  that  there 
were  considerably  over  fifty  thousand  of 
them  in  all ;  but  no  definite  assertion  can 
be  made  even  as  to  the  different  tribes.  As 
with  the  southern  Indians,  old-time  writers 
certainly  greatly  exaggerated  their  numbers, 
and  their  modern  followers  show  a  tendency 
to  fall  into  the  opposite  fault,  the  truth  be- 
ing that  any  number  of  isolated  observations 
to  support  either  position  can  be  culled  from 
the  works  of  the  contemporary  travellers  and 
statisticians.6  No  two  independent  observers 
give  the  same  figures.  One  main  reason 
for  this  is  doubtless  the  exceedingly  loose 
wav  in  which  the  word  "  tribe  "  was  used. 


5  See  Parkman's  "  Oregon  Trail."  In  1884  I 
myself  met  two  Delawares  hunting  alone,  just 
north  of  the  Black  Hills.  They  were  returning 
from  a  trip  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  I  could  not 
but  admire  their  strong,  manly  forms,  and  the  dis- 
dainful resolution  with  which  they  had  hunted  and 
travelled  for  so  many  hundred  miles,  in  defiance 
of  the  white  frontiersmen  and  of  the  wild  native 
tribes  as  well.  I  think  they  were  in  more  danger 
from  the  latter  than  the  former;  but  they  seemed 
perfectly  confident  of  their  ability  to  hold  their 
own  against  both. 

8  See  Barton,  the  Madison  MSS..  Schoolcraft, 
Thos.  Hutchins  (who  accompanied  Bouquet), 
Smythe,  Pike,  various  reports  of  the  U.  S.  In- 
dian Commissioners,  etc.,  etc. 


104 


THE   U'lXXIXG  OP 


If  a  man  speaks  of  the  Miamis  and  the  Del- 
awares,  for  instance,  before,  we  can  under- 
stand him  \ve  must  know  whether  he  includes 
therein  the  \Yeas  and  the  Munceys,  for  he 
may  or  may  not.  By  quoting  the  numbers 
attributed  by  the  old  writers  to  the  various 
sub-tribes,  and  then  comparing  them  with 
the  numbers  given  later  on  by  writers  using 
the  same  names,  but  speaking  of  entire  con- 
federacies, it  is  easy  to  work  out  an  apparent 
increase,  while  a  reversal  of  the  process 
shows  an  appalling  decrease.  Moreover,  as 
the  bands  broke  up,  wandered  apart,  and 
then  rejoined  each  other  or  not  as  events  fell 
out,  two  successive  observers  might  make 
widely  different  estimates.  Many  tribes  that 
have  disappeared  were  undoubtedly  actually 
destroyed  ;  many  more  have  simply  changed 
their  names  or  have  been  absorbed  by  other 
tribes.  Similarly,  those  that  have  apparently 
held  their  own  have  done  so  at  the  expense  of 
their  neighbors.  This  was  made  all  the 
easier  by  the  fact  that  the  Algonquins  were 
so  closely  related  in  customs  and  language  ; 
indeed,  there  was  constant  intermarriage  be- 
tween the  different  tribes.  On  the  whole, 
however,  there  is  no  question  that,  in  strik- 
ing contrast  to  the  southern  or  Appalachian 
Indians,  these  northwestern  tribes  have  suf- 
fered a  terrible  diminution  in  numbers. 

With  many  of  them  \ve  did  not  come  into 
direct  contact  for  long  years  after  our  birth 
as  a  nation.  Perhaps  those  tribes  with  all  or 
part  of  whose  warriors  we  were  brought  into 


THE  WEST  105 

collision  at  some  time  during  or  immediately 
succeeding  the  Revolutionary  war  may  have 
amounted  to  thirty  thousand  souls.7  But 
though  they  acknowledged  kinship  with  one 
another,  and  though  they  all  alike  hated  the 
Americans,  and  though,  moreover,  all  at 
times  met  in  the  great  councils,  to  smoke  the 
calumet  of  peace  and  brighten  the  chain  of 
friendship  8  among  themselves,  and  to  take 
up  the  tomahawk  9  against  the  white  foes,  yet 
the  tie  that  bound  them  together  was  so  loose, 
and  they  were  so  fickle  and  so  split  up  by 
jarring  interests  and  small  jealousies,  that 
never  more  than  half  of  them  went  to  war 
at  the  same  time.  Very  frequently  even  the 
members  of  a  tribe  would  fail  to  act  together. 
Thus  it  came  about  that  during  the  forty 
years  intervening  between  Braddock's  de- 
feat and  Wayne's  victory,  though  these 
northwestern  tribes  waged  incessant,  unend- 
ing, relentless  warfare  against  our  borders, 
yet  they  never  at  any  one  time  had  more 
than  three  thousand  warriors  in  the  field,  and 
frequently  not  half  that  number  10 ;  and  in  all 

7 1  base  this  number  on  a  careful  examination 
of  the  tribes  named  above,  discarding  such  of  the 
northern  bands  of  the  Chippewas,  for  instance,  as 
were  unlikely  at  that  time  to  have  been  drawn 
into  war  with  us. 

8  The  expressions  generally  used  by  them  in 
sending  their  war  talks  and  peace  talks  to  one  an- 
other or  the  whites.  Hundreds  of  copies  of  these 
"  talks  "  are  preserved  at  Washington. 

•  Do. 

10  Smith,  "  Remarkable  Occurrences,''  etc.,  p. 
154.  Smith  gives  a  very  impartial  account  of  the 


106  THE  WINNING  OF 

the  battles  they  fought  with  British  and 
American  troops  there  was  not  one  in  which 
they  were  eleven  hundred  strong.11 

But  they  were  superb  individual  fighters, 
beautifully  drilled  in  their  own  discipline  12 ; 
and  they  were  favored  beyond  measure  by 
the  nature  of  their  ground,  of  which  their 
whole  system  of  warfare  enabled  them  to 
take  the  utmost  possible  benefit.  Much  has 
been  written  and  sung  of  the  advantages 
possessed  by  the  mountaineer  when  striving 
in  his  own  home  against  invaders  from  the 
plains ;  but  these  advantages  are  as  nothing 
when  weighed  with  those  which  make  the 
warlike  dweller  in  forests  unconquerable  by 

Indian  discipline  and  of  their  effectiveness,  and  is 
one  of  the  few  men  who  warred  against  them  who 
did  not  greatly  over-estimate  their  numbers  and 
losses.  He  was  a  successful  Indian  fighter  him- 
self. For  the  British  regulars  he  had  the  true 
backwoods  contempt,  although  having  more  than 
the  average  backwoods  sen^e  in  acknowledging 
their  effectiveness  in  the  open.  He  had  lived  so 
long  among  the  India::-;,  and  e-timated  so  highly 
their  personal  prowess,  that  his  opinion  must  be 
accepted  with  caution  where  dealing  with  matters 
of  discipline  and  command. 

11  The  account-  <>f  the  Indian  numbers  in  any 
battle  given  by  British  or  Americans  soldiers 
or  civilian-,  are  ludicrously  exaggerated  as  a  rule; 
even  now  it  -eem<  a  common  belief  of  historians 
that  the  whiter  were  generally  outnumbered  in 
battles,  while  in  reality  they  were  generally  much 
more  numerous  than  their  foes, 

11  Ilarri-on  (!>>c.  cit.)  calls  them  "the  finest 
light  troops  in  the  world  "  ;  and  he  had  had  full 
experience  in  serving  with  American  and  against 
British  infantry. 


THE  WEST  107 

men  who  have  not  his  training.  A  hardy 
soldier,  accustomed  only  to  war  in  the  open, 
will  become  a  good  cragsman  in  fewer  weeks 
than  it  will  take  him  years  to  learn  to  be.  so 
much  as  a  fair  woodsman ;  for  it  is  beyond  all 
comparison  more  difficult  to  attain  profi- 
ciency in  woodcraft  than  in  mountaineer- 
ing.13 

The  Wyandots,  and  the  Algonquins  who 
surrounded  them,  dwelt  in  a  region  of  sun- 
less, tangled  forests;  and  all  the  wars  we 
waged  for  the  possession  of  the  country  be- 
tween the  Alleghanies  and  the  Mississippi 
were  carried  on  in  the  never-ending  stretches 
of  gloomy  woodland.  It  was  not  an  open 
forest.  The  underbrush  grew,  dense  and 
rank,  between  the  boles  of  the  tall  trees,  mak- 
ing a  cover  so  thick  that  it  was  in  many 
places  impenetrable,  so  thick  that  it  no- 
where gave  a  chance  for  human  eye  to  see 

11  Any  one  who  is  fond  of  the  chase  can  test  the 
truth  of  this  proposition  for  himself,  by  trying 
how  long  it  will  take  him  to  learn  to  kill  a  bighorn 
on  the  mountains,  and  how  long  it  will  take  him 
to  learn  to  kill  white-tail  deer  in  a  dense  forest, 
by  fair  still-hunting,  the  game  being  equally 
plenty.  I  have  known  many  novices  learn  to  equal 
the  best  old  hunters,  red  or  white,  in  killing 
mountain  game ;  I  have  never  met  one  who  could 
begin  to  do  as  well  as  an  Indian  in  the  dense 
forest,  unless  brought  up  to  it — and  rarely  even 
then.  Yet,  though  woodcraft  is  harder  to  learn, 
it  does  not  imply  the  possession  of  such  valuable 
qualities  as  mountaineering;  and  when  cragsman 
and  woodman  meet  on  neutral  ground,  the  former 
is  apt  to  be  the  better  man. 


io8  THE  WINNING  OF 

even  as  far  as  a  bow  could  carry.  No  horse 
could  penetrate  it  save  by  following  the 
game  trails  or  paths  chopped  with  the  axe; 
and  a  stranger  venturing  a  hundred  yards 
from  a  beaten  road  would  be  so  helplessly 
lost  that  he  could'  not,  except  by  the  merest 
chance,  even  find  his  way  back  to  the  spot 
he  had  just  left.  Here  and  there  it  was 
broken  by  a  rare  hillside  glade  or  by  a 
meadow  in  a  stream  valley ;  but  elsewhere  a 
man  might  travel  for  weeks  as  if  in  a  per- 
petual twilight,  never  once  able  to  see  the 
sun,  through  the  interlacing  twigs  that 
formed  a  dark  canopy  above  his  head. 

This  dense  forest  was  to  the  Indians  a 
home  in  which  they  had  lived  from  child- 
hood, and  where  they  were  as  much  at  case 
as  a  farmer  on  his  own  acres.  To  their  keen 
eyes,  trained  for  generations  to  more  than 
a  wild  beast's  watchfulness,  the  wilderness 
was  an  open  book;  nothing  at  rest  or  in  mo- 
tion escaped  them.  They  had  begun  to  track 
game  as  soon  as  they  could  walk  ;  a  scrape  on 
a  tree  trunk,  a  bruised  leaf,  a  faint  indenta- 
tion of  the  soil,  which  the  eye  of  no  white 
man  could  see,  all  told  them  a  tale  as  plainly 
as  if  it  had  been  shouted  in  their  ears.14  With 
moccasined  feet  they  trod  among  brittle 
twigs,  dried  leaves,  and  dead  branches  as  si- 
lently as  the  cougar,  and  they  equalled  the 

"To  this  day  the  \vild  -not  the  half-tame— In- 
dians remain  unequal]!  <1  as  trackers.  F.ven  among 
the  old  hunters  iv>t  one  white  in  a  hundred  can 
come  near  them.  In  my  experience  I  have  known  a 


THE   WEST  109 

great  wood-cat  in  stealth  and  far  surpassed  it 
in  cunning  and  ferocity.  They  could  no 
more  get  lost  in  the  trackless  wilderness  than 
a  civilized  man  could  get  lost  on  a  high- 
way. [Moreover,  no  knight  of  the  middle 
ages  was  so  surely  protected  by  his  armor  as 
they  were  by  their  skill  in  hiding;  the  whole 
forest  was  to  the  whites  one  vast  ambush, 
and  to  them  a  sure  and  ever-present  shield. 
Every  tree  trunk  was  a  breastwork  ready 
prepared  for  battle ;  every  bush,  every  moss- 
covered  boulder,  was  a  defence  against  as- 
sault, from  behind  which,  themselves  unseen, 
they  watched  with  fierce  derision  the  move- 
ments of  their  clumsy  white  enemy.  Lurk- 
ing, skulking,  travelling  with  noiseless  ra- 
pidity, they  left  a  trail  that  only  a  master 
in  woodcraft  could  follow,  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  could  dog  a  \vhite  man's 
footsteps  as  a  hound  runs  a  fox.  Their  si- 
lence, their  cunning  and  stealth,  their  ter- 
rible prowess  and  merciless  cruelty,  makes  it 
no  figure  of  speech  to  call  them  the  tigers  of 
the  human  race. 

Unlike  the  southern  Indians,  the  villages 
of  the  northwestern  tribes  were  usually  far 
from  the  frontier.  Tireless,  and  careless  of 
all  hardship,  they  came  silently  out  of  un- 

very  few  whites  who  had  spent  all  their  Jives  in 
the  wilderness  who  equalled  the  Indian  average ; 
but  I  never  met  any  white  who  came  np  to  the 
very  best  Indian.  But,  because  of  their  better 
shooting  and  their  better  nerve,  the  whites  often 
make  the  better  hunters. 


no  77/71  U' I XX  ING  OP 

known  forests,  robbed  and  murdered,  and 
then  disappeared  again  into  the  fathomless 
depths  of  the  woods.  Half  of  the  terror  they 
caused  was  due  to  the  extreme  difficulty  of 
following  them,  and  the  absolute  impossi- 
bility of  forecasting  their  attacks.  Without 
warning,  and  unseen  until  the  moment  they 
dealt  the  death  stroke,  they  emerged  from 
their  forest  fastnesses,  the  horror  they  caused 
being  heightened  no  less  by  the  mystery  that 
shrouded  them  than  by  the  dreadful  nature 
of  their  ravages.  \Yrapped  in  the  mantle  of 
the  unknown,  appalling  by  their  craft,  their 
ferocity,  their  fiendish  cruelty,  thev  seemed 
to  the  white  settlers  devils  and  not  men  ;  no 
one  could  say  with  certainty  whence  they 
came  nor  of  what  tribe  they  were;  and  when 
they  had  finished  their  dreadful  work  they 
retired  into  a  wilderness  that  closed  over  their 
trail  as  the  waves  of  the  ocean  close  in  the 
wake  of  a  ship. 

They  were  trained  to  the  use  of  arms  from 
tlu'ir  youth  up,  and  war  and  hunting  were 
tlu'ir  two  chief  occupations,  the  business  as 
well  as  the  pleasure  of  their  lives.  They 
were  not  as  skilful  as  the  white  hunters 
with  the  rifle  ir' — though  more  so  than  the 

15  It  is  curious  how  to  this  day  the  wild  Indians 
retain  tin-  ^ann-  traits  I  have  se<  n  and  taken 
part  in  many  mntchr-  '>rUvfrn  frontiersmen  and 
tin*  Sioux.  Cheyenne-,  Hro-venircs.  and  Mandans, 
rind  the  Indian1:  \\-<-re  heafen  in  almost  every  one. 
On  the  other  hand  the  Indian-;  will  -tand  faticrue. 
Jumper,  and  privation  better,  but  they  ?ecm  more 
susceptible  to  cold. 


THE  WEST  in 

average  regular  soldier, — nor  could  they 
equal  the  frontiersman  in  feats  of  physical 
prowess,  such  as  boxing  and  wrestling;  but 
their  superior  endurance  and  the  ease  with 
which  they  stood  fatigue  and  exposure  made 
amends  for  this.  ,  A  white  might  outrun 
them  for  eight  or  ten  miles ;  but  on  a  long 
journey  they  could  tire  out  any  man,  and 
any  beast  except  a  wolf.  Like  most  barbarians 
they  were  fickle  and  inconstant,  not  to  be 
relied  on  for  pushing  through  a  long  cam- 
paign, and  after  a  great  victory  apt  to  go 
off  to  their  homes,  because  each  man  desired 
to  secure  his  own  plunder  and  tell  his  own 
tale  of  glory.  They  are  often  spoken  of  as 
undisciplined  ;  but  in  reality  their  discipline 
in  the  battle  itself  was  very  high.  They  at- 
tacked, retreated,  rallied  or  repelled  a  charge 
at  the  signal  of  command  ;  and  they  were 
able  to  fight  in  open  order  in  thick  covers 
without  losing  touch  of  each  other — a  feat 
that  no  European  regiment  was  then  able 
to  perform. 

On  their  own  ground  they  were  far  more 
formidable  than  the  best  European  troops. 
The  British  grenadiers  throughout  the 
eighteenth  century  showed  themselves  su- 
perior, in  the  actual  shock  of  battle,  to  any 
infantry  of  continental  Europe ;  if  they  ever 
met  an  over-match,  it  was  when  pitted 
against  the  Scotch  highlanders.  Yet  both 
grenadier  and  Highlander,  the  heroes  of  Min- 
den.  the  heirs  to  the  glory  of  Marlborough's 
campaigns,  as  well  as  the  sinewy  soldiers 


H2  THE   U'lXXIXG  OF 

who  shared  in  the  charges  of  Frestonpans 
and  Culloden,  proved  helpless  when  led 
against  the  dark  tribesmen  of  the  forest. 
On  the  march  they  could  not  be  trusted 
thirty  yards  from  the  column  without  get- 
ting lost  in  the  woods  "'' — the  mountain 
training  of  the  highlanders  apparently  stand- 
ing them  in  no  stead  whatever. — and  were 
only  able  to  get  around  at  all  when  convoyed 
by  backwoodsmen.  In  fight  they  fared  even 
worse.  The  I'.ritish  regulars  at  Braddock's 
battle,  and  the  highlanders  at  (irant's  de- 
feat a  few  years  later,  suffered  the  same  fate. 
Both  battles  were  fair  fights;  neither  was  a 
surprise;  yet  the  stubborn  valor  of  the  red- 
coated  grenadier  and  the  headlong  courage 
of  the  kilted  Scot  proved  of  less  than  no  avail. 
Not  only  were  they  utterly  routed  and 
destroyed  in  each  case  hv  an  inferior  force 
of  Indians  (the  French  taking  little  part  in 
the  conflict),  but  they  were  ab1e  to  make  no 
effective  resistance  whatever  ;  it  is  to  this  day 
doubtful  whether  these  superb  regulars  were 
able  in  the  battles  where-  they  were  destroyed, 
to  so  much  as  ki1!  om-  Indian  for  every  hun- 
dred of  their  own  men  who  fell.  The  pro- 
vincials who  were  with  the  regulars  were 
the  only  troops  who  caused  anv  I<KS  to  the 
foe;  and  this  was  true  in  but  a  less  degree 
of  Bouquet's  fight  at  l'u-hv  Run.  Here 
Bouquet,  by  a  cle\  er  stratagem,  gained  the 

"See    Parkni:m's     "  f.  ,n  -piracy     of     Pontiac"; 
abo  "  Montcalm  and  \Yolf<.-." 


THE  WEST  113 

victory  over  an  enemy  inferior  in  numbers 
to  himself;  but  only  after  a  two  days'  strug- 
gle in  which  he  suffered  a  fourfold  greater 
loss  than  he  inflicted.17 

When  hemmed  in  so  that  they  had  no  hope 
of  escape,  the  Indians  fought  to  the  death; 
but  when  a  way  of  retreat  was  open  they 
would  not  stand  cutting  like  British,  French, 
or  American  regulars,  and  so,  though  with 
a  nearly  equal  force,  would  retire  if  they 
were  suffering  heavily,  even  if  they  were 
causing  their  foes  to  suffer  still  more.  This 
was  not  clue  to  lack  of  courage ;  it  was  their 
system,  for  they  were,  few  in  numbers,  and 
they  did  not  believe  in  losing  their  men.18 
The  Wyandots  were  exceptions  to  this  rule, 
for  with  them  it  was  a  point  of  honor  not 

17  Bouquet,    like    so   many   of  his   predecessors, 
and  successors,  greatly  exaggerated  the  numbers 
and  loss  of  the  Indians  in  this  fight.     Smith,  who 
derived    his    information    both    from    the    Indians 
and    from   the   American   rangers,   states   that  but 
eighteen  Indians  were  killed  at  Bushy  Run. 

18  Most  of  the  plains   Indians   feel   in  the  same 
way  at  present.     I  was  once  hunting  with  a  Sioux 
half-breed  who  illustrated  the  Indian  view  of  the 
matter  in  a  rather  striking  way.  saying:  "  If  there 
were  a  dozen  of  you  white  hunters  and  you  found 
six  or  eight  bears  in  the  brush,  and  you  knew  you 
could  go  in  and  kill  them  all,  but  that  in  the  fight 
you  would  certainly  lose  three  or  four  men  your- 
selves,  you   wouldn't  go   in,   would   you?     You'd 
wait  until  you  got  a  better  chance,  and  could  kill 
them   without   so   much   risk.     Well,   Indians  feel 
the    same    way   about   attacking   whites   that   you 
would  feel  about  attacking  those  bears." 


n4  THE  lYItoXING  OF 

to  yield,  and  so  they  were  of  all  the  tribes 
the  most  dangerous  in  an  actual  pitched  bat- 
tle.10 

But  making  the  attack,  as  they  usually 
did,  with  the  expectation  of  success,  all  were 
equally  dangerous.  If  their  foes  were  clus- 
tered together  in  a  huddle  they  attacked  them 
without  hesitation,  no  matter  what  the  dif- 
ference in  numbers,  and  shot  them  down  as 
if  they  had  been  elk  or  buffalo,  they  them- 
selves being  almost  absolutely  safe  from 
harm,  as  they  flitted  from  cover  to  cover. 
It  was  this  capacity  for  hiding,  or  taking 
advantage  of  cover,  that  gave  them  their 
great  superiority ;  and  it  is  because  of  this 
that  the  wood  tribes  were  so  much  more 
formidable  foes  in  actual  battle  than  the  horse 
Indians  of  the  plains  afterwards  proved 
themselves.  In  dense  woodland  a  body  of 
regular  soldiers  are  almost  as  useless  against 
Indians  as  they  would  be  if  at  night  they 
had  to  fight  foes  who  could  see  in  the  dark  ; 
it  needs  special  and  long-continued  training 
to  fit  them  in  any  degree  for  wood- fighting 
against  such  foes.  ( )ut  on  the  plains  the 
white  hunter's  skill  with  the  rifle  and  his 
cool  resolution  give  him  an  immense  advan- 
tage ;  a  few  determined  men  can  withstand 
a  host  of  Indians  in  the  open,  although  help- 
less if  they  meet  them  in  thick  cover:  and 
our  defeats  by  the  Sioux  and  other  plains 
tribes  have  generally  taken  the  form  of  a 

"  All    the  authorities   from    Smith   to   Harrison 
are  unanimous  on  this  point. 


THE   WEST  115 

small  force  being  overwhelmed  by  a  large 

one. 

Not  only  were  the  Indians  very  terrible  in 
battle,  but  they  were  cruel  beyond  all  belief 
in  victory  ;  and  the  gloomy  annals  of  border 
warfare  are  stained  with  their  darkest  hues 
because  it  was  a  war  in  which  helpless  wo- 
men and  children  suffered  the  same  hideous 
fate  that  so  often  befell  their  husbands  and 
fathers.  It  was  a  war  waged  by  savages 
against  armed  settlers,  whose  families  fol- 
lowed them  into  the  wilderness.  Such  a  war 
is  inevitably  bloody  and  cruel ;  but  the  inhu- 
man love  of  cruelty  for  cruelty's  sake,20 
which  marks  the  red  Indian  above  all  other 
savages,  rendered  these  wars  more  terrible 
than  any  others.  For  the  hideous,  unnama- 
ble,  unthinkable  tortures  practised  by  the  red 
men  on  their  captured  foes,  and  on  their  foes' 
tender  women  and  helpless  children,  were 
such  as  we  read  of  in  no  other  struggle, 
hardly  even  in  the  revolting  pages  that  tell 
the  deeds  of  the  Holy  Inquisition.  It  was 

M  Any  one  who  has  ever  been  in  an  encampment 
of  wild  Indians,  and  has  had  the  misfortune 
to  witness  the  delight  the  children  take  in  tortur- 
ing little  animals,  will  admit  that  the  Indian's 
love  of  cruelty  for  cruelty's  sake  cannot  possibly 
be  exaggerated.  The  young  are  so  trained  that 
when  old  they  shall  find  their  keenest  pleasure  in 
inflicting  pain  in  its  most  appalling  form.  Among 
the  most  brutal  white  borderers  a  man  would  be 
instantly  lynched  if  he  practised  on  any  creature 
the  fiendish  torture  which  in  an  Indian  camp 
either  attracts  no  notice  at  all,  or  else  excites 
merely  laughter. 


n6  THE   ll'IXXIXC  Ol; 

inevitable — indeed  it  was  in  many  instances 
proper — that  such  deeds  should  awake  in  the 
breasts  of  the  whites  the  grimmest,  wildest 
spirit  of  revenge  and  hatred. 

The  history  of  the  border  wars,  both  in 
the  ways  they  were  begun  and  in  the  ways 
they  were  waged,  makes  a  long  tale  of  in- 
juries inflicted,  suftered.  and  mercilessly  re- 
venged. It  could  not  be  otherwise  when 
brutal,  reckless,  lawless  borderers,  despising 
all  men  not  of  their  own  color,  were  thrown 
in  contact  with  savages  who  esteemed  cruelty 
and  treachery  as  the  highest  of  virtues,  and 
rapine  and  murder  as  the  worthiest  of  pur- 
suits. Moreover,  it  was  sadly  inevitable  that 
the  law-abiding  borderer  as  well  as  the  white 
ruffian,  the  peaceful  Indian  as  well  as  the 
painted  marauder,  should  be  plunged  into  the 
struggle  to  suffer  the  punishment  that  should 
only  have  fallen  on  their  evil-minded  fellows. 

Looking  back,  it  is  easy  to  say  that  much 
of  the  wrong-doing  could  have  been  pre- 
vented ;  but  if  we  examine  the  facts  to  find 
out  the  truth,  not  to  establish  a  theory,  we  are 
bound  to  admit  that  the  struggle  was  reallv 
one  that  could  not  possibly  have  been 
avoided.  The  sentimental  historians  speak 
as  if  the  blame  had  been  all  ours,  and  the 
•\vrong  all  done  to  our  foes,  and  as  if  it  would 
have  been  possible  by  any  exercise  of  wis- 
dom to  reconcile  c'aims  that  were  in  their 
very  essence  conflicting;  but  their  utterances 
are  as  shallow  as  they  are  untruthful."1  Un- 

11  See  Appendix  A. 


THE   WEST  117 

less  we  were  willing  that  the  whole  continent 
west  of  the  Alleghanies  should  remain  an 
unpeopled  waste,  the  hunting-ground  of 
savages,  war  was  inevitable  ;  and  even  had  we 
been  willing,  and  had  we  refrained  from  en- 
croaching on  the  Indians'  lands,  the  war 
would  have  come  nevertheless,  for  then  the 
Indians  themselves  would  have  encroached 
on  ours.  Undoubtedly  we  have  wronged 
many  tribes ;  but  equally  undoubtedly  our 
first  definite  knowledge  of  many  others  has 
been  derived  from  their  unprovoked  outrages 
upon  our  people.  The  Chippewas,  Ottawas, 
and  Pottawatamies  furnished  hundreds  of 
young  warriors  to  the  parties  that  devastated 
our  frontiers  generations  before  we  in  any 
way  encroached  upon  or  wronged  them. 

Mere  outrages  could  be  atoned  for  or  set- 
tled ;  the  question  which  lay  at  the  root  of  our 
difficulties  was  that  of  the  occupation  of  the 
land  itself,  and  to  this  there  could  be  no  so- 
lution save  war.  The  Indians  had  no  owner- 
ship of  the  land  in  the  way  in  which  we  un- 
derstand the  term.  The  tribes  lived  far 
apart ;  each  had  for  its  hunting-grounds  all 
the  territory  from  which  it  was  not  barred  by 
rivals.  Each  looked  with  jealousy  upon  all 
interlopers,  but  each  was  prompt  to  act  as  an 
interloper  when  occasion  offered.  Every 
good  hunting-ground  was  claimed  by  many 
nations.  It  was  rare,  indeed,  that  any  tribe 
had  an  uncontested  title  to  a  large  tract  of 
land ;  where  such  title  existed,  it  rested  not 
on  actual  occupancy  and  cultivation,  but  on 


uS  THE   IV IX XING  OP 

the  recent  butchery  of  weaker  rivals.  For 
instance,  there  were  a  dozen  tribes,  all  of 
whom  hunted  in  Kentucky,  and  fought  each 
other  there,  all  of  whom  had  equally  good 
titles  to  the  soil.,  and  not  one  of  whom  ac- 
knowledged the-  right  (.if  any  other;  as  a 
matter  of  fact  they  had  therein  no  right,  save 
the  right  of  the  strongest.  The  land  no  more 
belonged  to  them  than  it  belonged  to  Boone 
and  the  white  hunters  who  first  visited  it. 

On  the  borders  there  are  perpetual  com- 
plaints of  the  encroachments  of  whites  upon 
Indian  lands;  and  naturally  the  central  gov- 
ernment at  Washington,  and  before  it  was  at 
Washington,  has  usually  been  inclined  to 
sympathize  with  the  feeling  that  considers 
the  whites  the  aggressors,  for  the  govern- 
ment does  not  wish  a  v,  ar.  does  not  itself  feel 
any  land  hunger,  hears  of  not  a  tenth  of  the 
Indian  outrages,  and  knows  by  experience 
that  the  white1  borderers  are  not  easy  to  rule. 
As  a  consequence,  tin-  official  reports  of  the 
people  who  are  not  on  the  ground  are  apt 
to  paint  the  Indian  side  in  its  most  favorable 
light,  and  are  often  completely  untrust- 
worthy, this  being  particularly  the  case  if 
the  author  of  the  report  is  an  eastern  man, 
utterly  unacquainted  with  the  actual  condi- 
tion of  affairs  on  the  frontier. 

Such  a  man,  though  both  honest  and  in- 
telligent, when  he  hears  that  the  whites  have 
settled  on  Indian  lands,  cannot  realize  that 
the  act  has  no  resemblance  whatever  to  the 
forcible  occupation  of  land  already  culti- 


THE   WEST 


119 


vated.  The  white  settler  has  merely  moved 
into  an  uninhabited  waste;  he  does  not  feel 
that  he  is  committing  a  wrong,  for  he  knows 
perfectly  well  that  the  land  is  really  owned 
by  no  one.  It  is  never  even  visited,  except 
perhaps  for  a  week  or  two  every  year,  and 
then  the  visitors  are  likely  at  any  moment  to 
be  driven  off  by  a  rival  hunting-party  of 
greater  strength.  The  settler  ousts  no  one 
from  the  land ;  if  he  did  not  chop  down  the 
trees,  hew  out  the  logs  for  a  building,  and 
clear  the  ground  for  tillage,  no  one  else 
would  do  so.  He  drives  out  the  game,  how- 
ever, and  of  course  the  Indians  who  live 
thereon  sink  their  mutual  animosities  and 
turn  against  the  intruder.  The  truth  is,  the 
Indians  never  had  any  real  title  to  the  soil ; 
they  had  not  half  as  good  a  claim  to  it,  for 
instance,  as  the  cattlemen  now  have  to  all 
eastern  Montana,  yet  no  one  would  assert 
that  the  cattlemen  have  a  right  to  keep  im- 
migrants off  their  vast  unfenced  ranges.  The 
settler  and  pioneer  have  at  bottom  had  justice 
on  their  side ;  this  great  continent  could  not 
have  been  kept  as  nothing  but  a  game  pre- 
serve for  squalid  savages.  Moreover,  to  the 
most  oppressed  Indian  nations  the  whites 
often  acted  as  a  protection,  or,  at  least,  they 
deferred  instead  of  hastening  their  fate.  But 
for  the  interposition  of  the  whites  it  is  proba- 
ble that  the  Iroquois  would  have  extermi- 
nated every  Algonquin  tribe  before  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century ;  exactly  as  in  re- 
cent time  the  Crows  and  Pawnees  would 


120  THE   IV  IN  XING  Ol: 

have  been  destroyed  by  the  Sioux,  had  it  not 
been  for  the  wars  we  have  waged  against 
the  latter. 

Again,  the  loose  governmental  system  of 
the  Indians  made  it  as  difficult  to  secure  a 
permanent  peace  with  them  as  it  was  to  ne- 
gotiate the  purchase  of  the  lands.  The  sa- 
chem, or  hereditary  peace  chief,  and  the  elec- 
tive war  chief,  who  wielded  only  the  influence 
that  he  could  secure  by  his  personal  prowess 
and  his  tact,  were  equally  unable  to  control 
all  of  their  tribesmen,  and  were  powerless 
with  their  confederated  nations.  If  peacewas 
made  with  the  Shawnees,  the  war  was  con- 
tinued by  the  Miamis;  if  peace  was  made 
with  the  latter,  nevertheless  perhaps  one 
small  band  was  dissatisfied,  and  continued 
the  contest  on  its  own  account  ;  and  even  if 
all  the  recognized  bands  were  dealt  with,  the 
parties  of  renegades  or  outlaws  had  to  be 
considered;  and  in  the  last  resort  the  full 
recognition  accorded  by  the  Indians  to  the 
right  of  private  warfare,  made  it  possible  for 
any  individual  warrior  who  possessed  anv  in- 
fluence to  go  on  raiding  and  murdering  un- 
checked. Kverv  tribe,  everv  sub-tribe,  every 
band  of  a  dozen  souls  ruled  over  bv  a  petty 
chief,  almost  every  individual  warrior  of  the 
least  importance,  bad  to  be  met  and  pacified. 
Kven  if  peace  were  declared,  the  Indians 
could  not  exist  long  without  breaking  it. 
There  was  to  them  no  temptation  to  trespass 
on  the  white  man's  ground  for  the  purpose 
of  settling;  but  every  young  brave  was 


THE   WEST  i2i 

brought  up  to  regard  scalps  taken  and  horses 
stolen,  in  war  or  peace,  as  the  highest  proofs 
and  tokens  of  skill  and  courage,  the  sure 
means  of  attaining  glory  and  honor,  the  ad- 
miration of  men  and  the  love  of  women. 
Where  the  young  men  thought  thus,  and  the 
chiefs  had  so  little  real  control,  it  was  inevita- 
ble that  there  should  be  many  unprovoked 
forays  for  scalps,  slaves,  and  horses  made 
upon  the  white  borderers.22 

As  for  the  whites  themselves,  they  too 
have  many  and  grievous  sins  against  their 
red  neighbors  for  which  to  answer.  They 
cannot  be  severely  blamed  for  trespassing 
upon  what  was  called  the  Indian's  land ;  for 
let  sentimentalists  say  what  they  will,  the 
man  who  puts  the  soil  to  use  must  of  right 
dispossess  the  man  who  does  not,  or  the 
world  will  come  to  a  standstill ;  but  for  many 
of  their  other  deeds  there  can  be  no  pardon. 
On  the  border  each  man  was  a  law  unto  him- 
self, and  good  and  bad  alike  were  left  in  per- 
fect freedom  to  follow  out  to  the  uttermost 
limits  their  own  desires ;  for  the  spirit  of  in- 
dividualism so  characteristic  of  American  life 
reached  its  extreme  of  development  in  the 
backwoods.  The  whites  who  wished  peace, 
the  magistrates  and  leaders,  had  little  more 
power  over  their  evil  and  unruly  fellows 

"  Similarly  the  Crows,  who  have  always  been 
treated  well  by  us,  have  murdered  and  robbed 
any  number  of  peaceful,  unprotected  travellers 
during  the  past  three  decades,  as  I  know  per- 
sonally. 


122  THE  WINNING  OF 

than  the  Indian  sachems  had  over  the  turbu- 
lent young  braves.  Each  man  did  what 
seemed  best  in  his  own  eyes,  almost  without 
let  or  hindrance ;  unless,  indeed,  he  tres- 
passed upon  the  rights  of  his  neighbors,  who 
were  ready  enough  to  band  together  in  their 
own  defence,  though  slow  to  interfere  in 
the  affairs  of  others. 

Thus  the  men  of  lawless,  brutal  spirit  who 
are  found  in  every  community  and  who  flock 
to  places  where  the  reign  of  order  is  lax, 
were  able  to  follow  the  bent  of  their  inclina- 
tions unchecked.  They  utterly  despised  the 
red  man  ;  they  held  it  no  crime  whatever  to 
cheat  him  in  trading,  to  rob  him  of  his  pel- 
tries or  horses,  to  murder  him  if  the  fit  seized 
them.  Criminals  who  generally  preyed  on 
their  own  neighbors,  found  it  easier,  and  per- 
haps hardly  as  dangerous,  to  pursue  their 
calling  at  the  expense  of  the  redskins,  for  the 
latter,  when  they  discovered  that  they  had 
been  wronged,  were  quite  as  apt  to  vent  their 
wrath  on  some  outsider  as  on  the  origi- 
nal offender.  If  they  injured  a  white,  all  the 
whites  might  make  common  cause  against 
them;  but  if  they  injured  a  red  man.  though 
there  was  sure  to  be  plenty  of  whites  who  dis- 
approved of  it,  there  were  apt  to  be  very  few 
indeed  whose  disapproval  took  any  active 
shape. 

Each  race  stood  by  its  own  members,  and 
each  held  all  of  the  other  race  responsible  for 
the  misdeeds  of  a  few  uncontrollable  spirits; 
and  this  clannishness  amonsr  those  of  one 


THE  WEST  123 

color,  and  the  refusal  or  the  inability  to  dis- 
criminate between  the  good  and  the  bad  of 
the  other  color  were  the  two  most  fruitful 
causes  of  border  strife.23  When,  even  if  he 
sought  to  prevent  them,  the  innocent  man 
was  sure  to  suffer  for  the  misdeeds  of  the 
guilty,  unless  both  joined  together  for  de- 
fence, the  former  had  no  alternative  save  to 
make  common  cause  with  the  latter.  More- 
over, in  a  sparse  backwoods  settlement, 
where  the  presence  of  a  strong,  vigorous 
fighter  was  a  source  of  safety  to  the  whole 
community,  it  was  impossible  to  expect  that 
he  would  be  punished  with  severity  for  of- 
fences which,  in  their  hearts,  his  fellow 
townsmen  could  not  help  regarding  as  in 
some  sort  a  revenge  for  the  injuries  they  had 
themselves  suffered.  Every  quiet,  peaceable 
settler  had  either  himself  been  grievously 
wronged,  or  had  been  an  eye-witness  to 

:3  It  is  precisely  the  same  at  the  present  day.     I 

have  known  a  party  of  Sioux  to  steal  the  horses 
of  a  buffalo-hunting  outfit,  whereupon  the  latter 
retaliated  by  stealing  the  horses  of  a  party  of 
harmless  Grosventres :  and  I  knew  a  party  of 
Cheyennes,  whose  horses  had  been  taken  by  white 
thieves,  to,  in  revenge,  assail  a  camp  of  perfectly 
orderly  cowboys.  Most  of  the  ranchmen  along 
the  Little  Missouri  in  1884,  were  pretty  good  fel- 
lows, who  would  not  wrong  Indians,  yet  they 
tolerated  for  a  long  time  the  presence  of  men 
who  did  not  scruple  to  boast  that  they  stole  horses 
from  the  latter ;  while  our  peaceful  neighbors,  the 
Grosventres,  likewise  permitted  two  notorious  red- 
skinned  horse  thieves  to  use  their  reservation  as 
a  harbor  of  refuge,  and  a  starting-point  from 
which  to  make  forays  against  the  cattlemen. 


I24  THE   iriXXIXG  OF 

wrongs  done  to  his  friends ;  and  while  these 
were  vivid  in  his  mind,  the  corresponding 
wrongs  done  the  Indians  were  never  brought 
home  to  him  at  all.  If  his  son  was  scalped 
or  his  cattle  driven  off,  he  could  nut  be  ex- 
pected to  remember  that  perhaps  the  Indians 
who  did  the  deed  had  themselves  been 
cheated  by  a  white  trader,  or  had  lost  a  rela- 
tive at  the  hands  of  some  border  ruffian,  or 
felt  aggrieved  because  a  hundred  miles  off 
some  settler  had  built  a  cabin  on  lands  they 
considered  their  own.  \Yhen  he  joined  with 
other  exasperated  and  injured  men  to  make  a 
retaliatory  inroad,  his  vengeance  might  or 
might  not  fall  on  the  heads  of  the  real  of- 
fenders ;  and,  in  anv  case,  he  was  often  not  in 
the  frame  of  mind  to  put  a  stop  to  the  out- 
rages sure  to  be  committed  by  the  brutal 
spirits  among  his  allies — though  these  brutal 
spirits  were  probably  in  a  small  minority. 

The  excesses  so  often  committed  by  the 
whites,  when,  after  many  checks  and  failures, 
they  at  last  grasped  victory,  are  causes  for 
shame  and  regret;  yet  it  is  only  fair  to  keep 
in  mind  the  terrible  provocations  they  had  en- 
dured. Mercv,  pity,  magnanimity  to  the 
fallen,  could  not  be  expected  from  the  fron- 
tiersmen gathered  together  to  war  against  an 
Indian  tribe.  Almost  every  man  of  such  a 
band  had  bitter  personal  wrongs  to  avenge, 
lie  was  not  taking  part  in  a  war  against  a 
civilized  foe;  he  was  fighting  in  a  contest 
where  women  and  children  suffered  the  fate 


THE  WEST  125 

of  the  strong  men,  and  instead  of  enthu- 
siasm for  his  country's  flag  and  a  general 
national  animosity  towards  his  enemies,  he 
was  actuated  by  a  furious  flame  of  hot  anger, 
and  was  goaded  on  by  memories  of  which 
merely  to  think  was  madness.  His  friends 
had  been  treacherously  slain  while  on  mes- 
sages of  peace ;  his  house  had  been  burned, 
his  cattle  driven  off,  and  all  he  had  in  the 
world  destroyed  before  he  knew  that  war  ex- 
isted and  when  he  felt  quite  guiltless  of  all 
offence ;  his  sweetheart  or  wife  had  been  car- 
ried off,  ravished,  and  was  at  the  moment 
the  slave  and  concubine  of  some  dirty  and 
brutal  Indian  warrior ;  his  son,  the  stay  of  his 
house,  had  been  burned  at  the  stake  with  tor- 
ments too  horrible  to  mention24  •  his  sister, 
when  ransomed  and  returned  to  him,  had 
told  of  the  weary  journey  through  the  woods, 
when  she  carried  around  her  neck  as  a  horri- 

"  The  expression  "  too  horrible  to  mention  "  is 
to  be  taken  literally,  not  figuratively.  It  applies 
equally  to  the  fate  that  has  befallen  every  white 
man  or  woman  who  has  fallen  into  the  power  of 
hostile  plains  Indians  during  the  last  ten  or  fifteen 
years.  The  nature  of  the  wild  Indian  has  not 
changed.  Not  one  man  in  a  hundred,  and  not  a 
single  woman,  escapes  torments  which  a  civilized 
man  cannot  look  another  in  the  face  and  so  much 
as  speak  of.  Impalement  on  charred  stakes, 
finger-nails  split  off  backwards,  finger-joints 
chewed  off,  eyes  burned  out — these  tortures  can  be 
mentioned,  but  there  are  others  equally  normal 
and  customary  which  cannot  even  be  hinted  at, 
especially  when  women  are  the  victims. 


126  THE   U'l  .\.\L\G  OF 

ble  necklace  the  bloody  scalps  of  her  husband 
and  children25 ;  seared  into  his  eyeballs,  into 
his  very  brain,  he  bore  ever  with  him,  waking 
or  sleeping,  the  sight  of  the  skinned,  muti- 
lated, hideous  body  of  the  baby  who  had 
just  grown  old  enough  to  recognize  him  and 
to  crow  and  laugh  when  taken  in  his  arms. 
Such  incidents  as  these  were  not  exceptional ; 
one  or  more,  and  often  all  of  them,  were  the 
invariable  attendants  of  every  one  of  the 
countless  Indian  inroads  that  took  place  dur- 
ing the  long  generations  of  forest  warfare. 
It  was  small  wonder  that  men  who  had  thus 
lost  every  thing  should  sometimes  be  fairly 
crazed  by  their  wrongs.  Again  and  again 
on  the  frontier  we  hear  of  some  such  unfor- 
tunate who  has  devoted  all  the  remainder  of 
his  wretched  life  to  the  one  object  of  taking 
vengeance  on  the  whole  race  of  the  men  who 
had  darkened  his  days  forever.  Too  often 
the  squaws  and  pappooses  fell  victims  of  the 
vengeance  that  should  have  come  only  on  the 
warriors  ;  for  the  whites  regarded  their  foes 
as  beasts  rather  than  men,  and  knew  that  the 
squaws  were  more  cruel  than  others  in  tor- 
luring  the  prisoner,  and  that  the  very 
children  took  their  full  part  therein,  being 
he'd  up  by  their  fathers  to  tomahawk  the 
dying  victims  at  the  stake.-1'' 

15  For  the  particular  incident  see  M'Ferrin's 
"  History  of  Methodism  in  Tennes-ee,"  p.  i.}> 

"A-  wa>  tii 'iic  to  the  fath<-r  of  Simon  Girty. 
Any  history  of  any  Indian  inroad  will  give  ex- 
amples such  as  I  have  mentioned  above.  See 


THE  WEST  127 

Thus  it  is  that  there  are  so  many  dark  and 
bloody  pages  in  the  book  of  border  warfare, 
that  grim  and  iron-bound  volume,  wherein 
we  read  how  our  forefathers  won  the  wide 
lands  that  we  inherit.  It  contains  many  a 
tale  of  fierce  heroism  and  adventurous  ambi- 
tion, of  the  daring  and  resolute  courage  of 
men  and  the  patient  endurance  of  women ;  it 
shows  us  a  stern  race  of  freemen  who  toiled 
hard,  endured  greatly,  and  fronted  adversity 
bravely,  who  prized  strength  and  courage 
and  good  faith,  whose  wives  were  chaste, 
who  were  generous  and  loyal  to  their  friends. 
But  it  shows  us  also  how  they  spurned  at  re- 
straint and  fretted  under  it,  how  they  would 
brook  no  wrong  to  themselves,  and  yet  too 
often  inflicted  wrong  on  others ;  their  feats 
of  terrible  prowess  are  interspersed  \vith 
deeds  of  the  foulest  and  most  wanton  aggres- 
sion, the  darkest  treachery,  the  most  revolt- 
ing cruelty ;  and  though  we  meet  with  plenty 
of  the  rough,  strong,  coarse  virtues,  we  see 
but  little  of  such  qualities  as  mercy  for  the 
fallen,  the  weak,  and  the  helpless,  or  pity  for 
a  gallant  and  vanquished  foe. 

McAfee  MSS.,  John  P.  Male's  "  Trans-Alleghany 
Pioneers,"  De  Haas'  "  Indian  Wars,"  Wither' s 
"  Border  War,"  etc.  In  one  respect,  however, 
the  Indians  east  of  the  Mississippi  were  better 
than  the  tribes  of  the  plains  from  whom  our 
borders  have  suffered  during  the  present  century; 
their  female  captives  were  not  invariably  ravished 
by  every  member  of  the  band  capturing  them,  as 
has  ever  been  the  custom  among  the  horse  In- 
dians. Slill,  they  were  often  made  the  concubines 
of  their  captors. 


128  THE  WIXNIXG  OF 

Among  the  Indians  of  the  northwest, 
generally  so  much  alike,  that  \ve  need  pay 
little  heed  to  tribal  distinctions,  there  was  one 
body  deserving  especial  and  separate  men- 
tion. Among  the  turbulent  and  jarring  ele- 
ments tossed'  into  wild  confusion  by  the 
shock  of  the  contact  between  savages  and 
the  rude  vanguard  of  civilisation,  surrounded 
and  threatened  by  the  painted  warriors  of  the 
woods  no  less  than  by  the  lawless  white  rifle- 
men who  lived  on  the  stump-dotted  clear- 
ings, there  dwelt  a  group  of  peaceful  beings 
who  were  destined  to  suffer  a  dire  fate  in  the 
most  lamentable  and  pitiable  of  all  the  trag- 
edies which  were  played  out  in  the  heart  of 
this  great  wilderness.  These  were  the  Mora- 
vian Indians."7  They  were  mostly  Dela- 
wares.  and  had  been  converted  by  the  in- 
defatigable German  missionaries,  who  taught 
the  tranquil,  Quaker-like  creed  of  Count 
Zinzendorf.  The  zeal  and  success  of  the  mis- 
sionaries were  attested  by  the  marvellous 
change  they  had  wrought  in  these  converts; 
for  they  had  transformed  them  in  one  gen- 
eration from  a  restless,  idle,  bl<jod-thirsty 
people  of  hunters  and  fishers,  into  an  orderly, 
thrifty,  industrious  folk,  believing  with  all 

r  The  missionaries  called  tln-m-elve^  United 
Brethren  ;  to  outsider^  they  were  known  as  Mor- 
avians Lo-kiel.  "  Hi-tory  nf  the  Minion  of  the 
United  Brethren."  London.  1704.  Heckewelder, 
"  Narrative  of  the  Mission  of  the  United  Breth- 
ren." Phil.,  1820. 


THE  WEST 


129 


their  hearts  the  Christian  religion  in  the  form 
in  which  their  teachers  both  preached  and 
practised  it.  At  first  the  missionaries,  sur- 
rounded by  their  Indian  converts,  dwelt  ID 
Pennsylvania ;  but,  harried  and  oppressed  by 
their  white  neighbors,  the  submissive  and 
patient  Moravians  left  their  homes  and  their 
cherished  belongings,  and  in  1771  moved  out 
into  the  wilderness  northwest  of  the  Ohio. 
It  is  a  bitter  and  unanswerable  commentary 
on  the  workings  of  a  non-resistant  creed 
when  reduced  to  practice,  that  such  outrages 
and  massacres  as  those  committed  on  these 
helpless  Indians  were  more  numerous  and 
flagrant  in  the  colony  the  Quakers  governed 
than  in  any  other;  their  vaunted  policv  of 
peace,  which  forbade  them  to  play  a  true 
man's  part  and  put  down  wrong-doing, 
caused  the  utmost  possible  evil  to  fall  both 
on  the  white  man  and  the  red.  An  avowed 
policy  of  force  and  fraud  carried  out  in  the 
most  cynical  manner  could  hardly  have 
worked  more  terrible  injustice ;  their  system 
was  a  direct  incentive  to  crime  and  wrong- 
doing between  the  races,  for  they  punished 
the  aggressions  of  neither,  and  hence  allowed 
any  blow  to  always  fall  heaviest  on  those 
least  deserving  to  suffer.  No  other  colony 
made  such  futile,  contemptible  efforts  to  deal 
with  the  Indian  problem ;  no  other  colony 
showed  such  supine,  selfish  helplessness  in 
allowing  her  own  border  citizens  to  lie  merci- 
lessly harried ;  none  other  betrayed  such  ina- 


I30 


THE  WINNING  OF 


bility  to  master  the  hostile  Indians,  while 
nevertheless,  utterly  failing  to  protect  those 
who  were  peace tnl  and  friendly. 

When  i!u-  Moravians  removed  beyond  the 
Ohio,  they  settled  on  the  hanks  of  the  Mus- 
kingum,  made  clearings  in  the  forest,  and 
built  themselves  little  towns,  which  they 
christened  by  such  quaint  names  as  Salem 
and  ( inadenhiitten  ;  names  that  were  pathetic 
symbols  of  the  peace  which  the  harmless  and 
sadlv  submissive  wanderers  so  vainlv  sought. 
llerc,  in  the  forest,  thev  worked  and  toiled, 
surrounded  their  clean,  neatlv  kept  village's 
with  orchards  and  grain-fields,  bred  horses 
and  cattle,  and  tried  to  do  wrong  to  no  man  ; 
all  of  each  community  meeting  everv  day  to 
worship  and  praise  their  Creator.  Hut  the 
missionaries  who  had  done  so  much  for  them 
had  also  done  one  thing  which  more  than  off- 
set it  all ;  for  they  had  taught  them  not  to  de- 
fend themselves,  and  had  thus  exposed  the 
poor  beings  who  trusted  their  teaching  to  cer- 
tain destruction.  Xo  greater  wrong  can  ever 
be  done  than  to  put  a  good  man  at  the  mercv 
of  a  bad,  while  telling  him  not  to  defend  him- 
self or  his  fellows;  in  no  \vav  can  the  success 
of  evil  be  made  surer  and  quicker;  but  the 
wrong  was  peculiarly  great  when  at  such 
a  time1  and  in  such  a  place  the  defenceless 
Indians  were  thrust  between  the  anvil  of  their 
savage  red  brethren  and  the  hammer  of  the 
lawless  and  brutal  white  borderers.  The 
awful  harvest  which  the  poor  converts  reaped 


THE  WEST  131 

had  in  reality  been  sown  for  them  by  their 
own  friends  and  would-be  benefactors. 

So  the  Moravians,  seeking  to  deal  honestly 
with  Indians  and  whites  alike,  but  in  return 
suspected  and  despised  by  both,  worked  pa- 
tiently year  in  and  year  out,  as  they  dwelt 
in  their  lonely  homes,  meekly  awaiting  the 
stroke  of  the  terrible  doom  which  hung  over 
them. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   BACKWOOPSMEN    OF   THE  ALLEGHANIES 
1/69-1774 

ALOXG  the  western  frontier  of  the  col- 
onies   that    were    so    soon   to   be    the 
United  States,  among  the  foothills  of 
the  Alleghanies,  on  the  slopes  of  the  wooded 
mountains,  and  in  the  long  trough-like  val- 
levs  that  lav  between  the  ranges,  dwelt  a  pe- 
culiar and  characteristically  American  peo- 
ple. 

These  frontier  folk,  the  people  of  the  up- 
country,  or  back-country,  who  lived  near  and 
among  the  forest-clad  mountains,  far  away 
from  the  long-settled  districts  of  tlat  coast 
plain  and  sluggish  tidal  river,  were  known  to 
themselves  and  to  others  as  backwoodsmen. 
Thev  all  bore  a  strong  likeness  to  one  another 
in  their  habits  of  thought  and  ways  of  living, 
and  differed  markedly  from  the  people  of  the 
older  and  more  civilized  communities  to  the 
eastward.  The  western  border  of  our  coun- 
try was  then  formed  by  the  great  barrier- 
chains  of  the  Aileghrmies  which  ran  north 
and  south  from  Pennsylvania  through 
Marvlancl,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas,1  the 

1  Georgia  \va?  then  too  \veak  and  small  to  con- 


THE  WEST  133 

trend  of  the  valleys  being  parallel  to  the  sea- 
coast,  and  the  mountains  rising  highest  to 
the  southward.  It  was  difficult  to  cross  the 
ranges  from  east  to  west,  but  it  was  both 
easy  and  natural  to  follow  the  valleys  be- 
tween. From  Fort  Pitt  to  the  high  hill- 
homes  of  the  Cherokees  this  great  tract  of 
wooded  and  mountainous  country  possessed 
nearly  the  same  features  and  characteristics, 
differing  utterly  in  physical  aspect  from  the 
alluvial  plains  bordering  the  ocean. 

So,  likewise,,  the.  backwoods  mountaineers 
who  dwelt  near  the  great  water-shed  that 
separates  the  Atlantic  streams  from  the 
springs  of  the  Watauga,  the  Kanawha,  and 
the  Monongahela,  were  all  cast  in  the  same 
mould,  and  resembled  each  other  much  more 
than  any  of  them  did  their  immediate  neigh- 
bors of  the  plains.  The  backwoodsmen  of 
Pennsylvania  had  little  in  common  with  the 
peaceful  population  of  Quakers  and  Germans 
who  lived  between  the  Delaware  and  the  Sus- 
quehanna ;  and  their  near  kinsmen  of  the 
Blue  Ridge  and  the  Great  Smoky  Mountains 
were  separated  by  an  equally  wide  gulf  from 
the  aristocratic  planter  communities  that 
flourished  in  the  tide-water  regions  of  Vir- 
ginia and  the  Carolinas.  Near  the  coast  the 
lines  of  division  between  the  colonies  corre- 
sponded fairly  well  with  the  differences  be- 
tween the  populations  ;  but  after  striking  the 
foothills,  though  the  political  boundaries  con- 
tribute much  to  the  backwoods  stock;  her  frontier 
was  still  in  the  low  country. 


134 


THE   WINNING  OF 


tinned  to  go  cast  and  west,  those  both  of 
ethnic  and  of  physical  significance  began  to 
run  north  and  south. 

The  backwoodsmen  were  Americans  by 
birth  and  parentage,  and  of  mixed  race;  but 
the  dominant  strain  in  their  blood  was  that 
of  the  Presbyterian  Irish — the  Scotch-Irish 
as  they  were  often  called.  Full  credit  has 
been  awarded  the  Roundhead  and  the  Cava- 
lier for  their  leadership  in  our  history;  nor 
have  we  been  altogether  blind  to  the  deeds  of 
the  Hollander  and  the  Huguenot;  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  we  have  wholly  reali/.ed  the  im- 
portance of  the  part  played  by  that  stern  and 
virile  people,  the  Irish  whose  preachers 
taught  the  creed  of  Knox  and  Calvin.  These 
Irish  representatives  of  the  Covenanters 
were  in  the  west  almost  what  the  Puritans 
were  in  the  northeast,  and  more  than  the 
Cavaliers  were  in  the  south.  Mingled  with 
the  descendants  of  many  other  races,  they 
nevertheless  formed  the  kernel  of  the  dis: 
tinctively  and  intensely  American  stock  who 
were  the  pioneers  of  our  people  in  their 
march  westward,  the  vanguard  of  the  army 
of  fighting  settlers,  who  with  axe  and  rifle 
won  their  way  from  the  Alleghanies  to  the 
Rio  Grande  and  the  Pacific.2 

1  Amonp  the  dozen  or  «o  mo-t  prominent  hack- 
woods  pioneers  of  tin.-  we~t  and  southwest,  the 
men  who  \vcrc  the  leader-  in  exploring  and  ^et- 
tlinf?  the  lamN.  and  in  furhtine:  the  Indians.  Rrit- 
i-h.  and  Mexicans,  the  Prc-hyten'an  Tri-h  ^tock 
furni'-hed  Andrew  Jnck-»n.  Samuel  Houston, 
David  Crockett,  James  Robertson  ;  Lewis,  the 


THE  WEST 


135 


The  Presbyterian  Irish  were  themselves 
already  a  mixed  people.  Though  mainly  de- 
scended from  Scotch  ancestors — who  came 
originally  from  both  lowlands  and  highlands, 
from  among  both  the  Scotch  Saxons  and  the 
Scotch  Celts,3 — many  of  them  were  of  Eng- 
lish, a  few  of  French  Huguenot,4  and  quite 
a  number  of  true  old  Milesian  Irish5  extrac- 
tion. They  were  the  Protestants  of  the 
Protestants ;  they  detested  and  despised  the 
Catholics,  whom  their  ancestors  had  con- 
quered, and  regarded  the  Episcopalians  by 
whom  they  themselves  had  been  oppressed, 
with  a  more  sullen,  but  scarcely  less  intense, 

leader  of  the  backwoods  hosts  in  their  first  great 
victory  over  the  northwestern  Indians;  and  Camp- 
bell, their  commander  in  their  first  great  victory 
over  the  British.  The  other  pioneers  who  stand 
beside  the  above  were  snch  men  as  Sevier,  a  Shen- 
andoah  Huguenot;  Shelby,  of  Welsh  blood;  and 
Boonc  and  Clark,  both  of  English  stock,  the  for- 
mer from  Pennsylvania,  the  latter  from  Virginia. 

'  Of  course,  generations  before  they  ever  came 
to  America,  the  McAfees,  McClungs,  Campbells, 
McCoshes,  etc.,  had  become  indistinguishable  from 
the  Todds,  Armstrongs,  Elliotts,  and  the  like. 

4  A  notable  instance  being  that  of  the  Lewis 
family,  of  Great  Kanawha  fame. 

BThe  Blount  MSS.  contain  many  muster-rolls  and 
pay-rolls  of  the  frontier  forces  of  North  Carolina 
during  the  year  1788.  In  these,  and  in  the  lists  of 
names  of  settlers  preserved  in  the  Am.  State  Papers, 
Public  Lands,  II.,  etc.,  we  find  numerous  names 
such  as  Shea,  Drennan.  O'Neil,  O'Brien,  Ma- 
honey,  Sullivan,  O'Connell,  Maguire,  O'Donohue, 
• — in  fact  hardly  a  single  Irish  name  is  unrepre- 
sented. Of  course,  many  of  these  were  the  de- 
scendants of  imported  Irish  bondservants;  but 


136  THE  WINNING  0£ 

hatred.6  They  were  a  truculent  and  obsti- 
nate people,  and  gloried  in  the  warlike  re- 
nown of  their  forefathers,  the  men  who  had 
followed  Cromwell,  and  who  had  shared  in 
the  defence  of  Derry  and  in  the  victories  of 
the  Boyne  and  Aughrirn.7 

They  did  "not  begin  to  come  to  America 
in  any  numbers  till  after  the  opening  of  the 
eighteenth  century;  by  1730  they  were  fairly 
swarming  across  the  ocean,  for  the  most  part 
in  two  streams,  the  larger  going  to  the  port 
of  Philadelphia,  the  smaller  to  the  port  of 
Charleston.8  Pushing  through  the  long  set- 
tled lowlands  of  the  seacoast.  they  at  once 
made  their  abode  at  the  foot  of  the  moun- 
tains, and  became  the  outposts  of  civilization. 
From  Pennsylvania,  whither  the  great  ma- 
many  also  were  free  immigrants,  belonging  to  the 
Presbyterian  Congregations,  and  sometimes  ap- 
pearing as  pastors  thereof.  For  the  numerous 
Irish  names  of  prominent  pioneers  (such  as 
Donclly,  Ilogan,  etc.)  see  McClung's  "Western 
Adventures"  (Louisville.  1879),  52,  167,  207,  308, 
etc. ;  also  DeHaas,  236,  289.  etc. ;  Doddridge,  16, 
288.  301.  etc.,  etc. 

'  "  Sketches  of  North  Carolina,"  William  Henry 
Foote,  New  York,  1846.  An  excellent  book, 
writrn  after  much  research. 

T  For  a  few  among  many  instances :  Houston 
Csee  Lane's  "  Life  of  Houston  ")  had  ancestors 
at  Derry  and  Aughrim;  the  McAfees  (see  McAfee 
MSS.)  and  Irvine,  one  of  the  commanders  on 
Crawford's  expedition,  were  descendants  of  men 
who  fought  at  the  Boyne  ("  Crawford's  Cam- 
paign." Ci.  W.  Buttcrfie'd.  Cincinnati,  1873,  p.  26)  ; 
so  with  Lewis,  Campbell,  etc. 

•Foote,  78. 


137 

jority  had  come,  they  drifted  south  along  the 
foothills,  and  down  the  long  valleys,  till  they 
met  their  brethren  from  Charleston  who  had 
pushed  up  into  the  Carolina  back-country. 
In  this  land  of  hills,  covered  by  unbroken 
forest,  they  took  root  and  flourished,  stretch- 
ing in  a  broad  belt  from  north  to  south,  a 
shield  of  sinewy  men  thrust  in  between  the 
people  of  the  seaboard  and  the  red  warriors 
of  the  wilderness.  All  through  this  region 
they  were  alike;  they  had  as  little  kinship 
with  the  Cavalier  as  with  the  Quaker;  the 
west  was  won  by  those  who  have  been  rightly 
called  the  Roundheads  of  the  south,  the  same 
men  who,  before  any  others,  declared  for 
American  independence.0 

The  two  facts  of  most  importance  to  re- 
member in  dealing  with  our  pioneer  history 
are,  first,  that  the  western  portions  of  Vir- 
ginia and  the  Carolinas  were  peopled  by  an 
entirely  different  stock  from  that  which  had 
long  existed  in  the  tide-water  regions  of 
those  colonies ;  and,  secondly,  that,  except  for 
those  in  the  Carolinas  who  came,  from 
Charleston,  the  immigrants  of  this  stock 
were  mostly  from  the  north,  from  their  great 
breeding-ground  and  nursery  in  western 
Pennsylvania.10 

9  Witness   the   Mecklenburg  Declaration. 

10  McAfee  MSS.     "*Trans-AlleRhany  Pioneers" 
(John    P.   TTale),   17.     Foote,   188.     See  also  Co- 
lumbian   Magazine,    I.,    122.,    and    Schopf,    406. 
Boone,  Crockett,  Houston,  Campbell,  Lewis,  were 
among  the  southwestern  pioneers  whose  families 


138  THE   WIXXIXG  OF 

That  these  Irish  Presbyterians  were  a  bold 
and  hardy  race  is  proved  by  their  at  once 
pushing  past  the  settled  regions,  and  plung- 
ing into  the  wilderness  as  the  leaders  of  the 
white  advance.  They  were  the  first  and  last 
set  of  immigrants  to  do  this;  all  others  have 
merely  followed  in  the  wake  of  their  prede- 
cessors. Pint,  indeed,  they  were  fitted  to  be 
Americans  from  the  very  start ;  they  were 
kinsfolk  of  the  Covenanters  ;  they  deemed  it 
a  religious  duty  to  interpret  their  own  Bible, 
and  held  for  a  divine  right  the  (.'lection  of 
their  own  clergy.  For  generations  their 
whole  ecclesiastic  and  scholastic  systems  had 
been  fundamentally  democratic.  In  the  hard 
life  of  the  frontier  tlicv  lost  much  of  their  re- 
ligion, and  they  had  but  scant  opportunity  to 
give  their  children  the  schooling  in  which 
thev  believed  ;  but  what  few  meeting-houses 
and  school-houses  there  were  on  the  border 
were  theirs.11  The  numerous  families  of 
colonial  English  who  came  among  them 
adopted  their  religion  if  they  adopted  any. 
The  creed  of  the  backwoodsman  who  had  a 
creed  at  all  was  Frcshyterianism  :  for  the 
Fpiscopacy  of  the  tide-\vater  lands  obtained 

originally  came  fmni  Pennsylvania.  Sec  "  An- 
na!- "f  Ancru-tn  County,  Ya..."  by  Jo-eph  A. 
Waddell.  Richmond.  iSW  'an  excellent  hook), 
pp.  4.  2~fi.  2~H,  for  a  clear  -li»\viiiLT  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Iri-h  origin  of  the  \\C-t  Virginians,  and 
of  thi1  large  German  admixture. 

"  The  Iri-h  schoolmaster  \va.i  everywhere  a  fea- 
ture of  ear'.v  we-tern  ~ocietv. 


THE   WEST 


139 


no  foothold  in  the  mountains,  and  the  Metho- 
dists and  Baptists  had  but  just  begun  to  ap- 
pear in  the  west  when  the  Revolution  broke 
out.12 

These  Presbyterian  Irish  were,  however, 
far  from  being  the  only  settlers  on  the  border, 
although  more  than  any  others  they  im- 
pressed the  stamp  of  their  peculiar  character 
on  the  pioneer  civilization  of  the  west  and 
southwest.  Great  numbers  of  immigrants 
of  English  descent  came  among  them  from 
the  settled  districts  on  the  east;  and  though 
these  later  arrivals  soon  became  indistin- 
guishable from  the  people  among  whom  they 
settled,  yet  they  certainly  sometimes  added  a 
tone  of  their  own  to  backwoods  society,  giv- 
ing it  here  and  there  a  slight  dash  of  what 
we  are  accustomed  to  consider  the  distinc- 
tively southern  or  cavalier  spirit.13  There 
was  likewise  a  large  German  admixture,  not 
only  from  the  Germans  of  Pennsylvania,  but 

"McAfee  MSS.  MS.  Autobiography  of  Rev. 
Wm.  Hickman,  born  in  Virginia  in  1747  (in  Col. 
R.  T.  Durrett's  library).  "  Trans- Alleghany 
Pioneers,"  147.  "  History  of  Kentucky  Baptists." 
J.  H.  Spencer  (Cincinnati,  1885). 

13  Boone,  though  of  English  descent,  had  no 
Virginia  blood  in  his  veins ;  he  was  an  exact  type 
of  the  regular  backwoodsman  ;  but  in  Clark,  and 
still  more  in  Blount,  we  see  strong  traces  of  the 
"  cavalier  spirit."  Of  course,  the  Cavaliers  no 
more  formed  the  bulk  of  the  Virginia  people  than 
they  did  of  Rupert's  armies;  but  the  squires  and 
yeomen  who  went  to  make  up  the  mass  took  their 
tone  from  their  leaders. 


1 40  THE   WINNING  OF 

also  from  those  of  the  Carolinas.14     A  good 
many  Huguenots  likewise  came,16  and  a  few 

"Many  of  the  most  noted  hunters  and  Indian 
fighters  were  of  German  origin.  (See  ''Early 
Times  in  Middle  Tennessee,"  John  Carr,  Nash- 
ville, 1859,  pp.  54  and  56,  for  Steiner  and  Man- 
sker — or  Stoner  and  Mansco.)  Such  were  the 
Wetzels,  famous  in  border  annals,  who  lived  near 
Wheeling;  Michael  Steiner,  the  Steiners  being  the 
forefathers  of  many  of  the  numerous  Kentucky 
Stoners  of  to-day;  and  Kasper  Manskcr,  the  "  Mr. 
Mansco  "  of  Tennessee  writers.  Even'  old  we<t- 
ern  narrative  contains  many  allusions  to  "  Dutch- 
men," as  Americans  very  properly  call  the  Ger- 
mans. Their  names  abound  on  the  muster-rolls, 
pay-rolls,  lists  of  settlers,  etc..  of  the  day  (Blount 
MSS.,  State  Department  MSS.,  McAfee  MSS.. 
Am.  State  Papers,  etc.);  but  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  they  arc  often  Anglicized,  when  nothing 
remains  to  show  the  origin  of  the  owners.  We 
could  not  recognize  in  Custer  and  Herkomer, 
Kiister  and  Ilerckheimer.  were  not  the  ancestral 
history  of  the  two  generals  already  known;  and  in 
the  backwood^,  a  man  often  loses  sight  of  hi^  an- 
cestors in  a  couple  of  generations.  In  the  Caro- 
linas the  German-  seem  to  have  been  rlmost  as 
plentiful  on  the  frontiers  as  the  Irish  (sec  Adair, 
245,  and  Smyth's  "Tour,"  I.,  236).  In  Pennsylvania 
they  lived  nearer  civilization  (  Schoolcraft,  3,  335; 
"Journey  in  the  \Ye-t  in  1785,"  by  Lewis  Brantz), 
although  also  mixed  with  the  borderers;  the  more 
adventurous  among  them  naturally  seeking  the 
frontier. 

15  Giving  to  the  backwoods  society  such  families 
as  the  Seviers  and  I.enoir-.  The  Huguenots,  like 
the  German-,  frequently  bad  their  names  Angli- 
cized. The  be-t  known  and  most  often  quoted  ex- 
ample is  that  of  the  TVancpied  family,  part  of 
whom  have  become  Whitefoots,  while  the  others, 
living  on  the  coar-t.  have  -ufFered  a  marvellous 
$ea-change,  the  name  reappearing  as  "  Blumpy." 


THE  WEST  141 

Hollanders16  and  even  Swedes/7  from  the 
banks  of  the  Delaware,  or  perhaps  from 
farther  off  still. 

A  single  generation,  passed  under  the 
hard  conditions  of  life  in  the  wilderness,  was 
enough  to  weld  together  into  one  people  the 
representatives  of  these  numerous  and  widely 
different  races ;  and  the  children  of  the  next 
generation  became  indistinguishable  from 
one  another.  Long  before  the  first  Continen- 
tal Congress  assembled,  the  backwoodsmen, 
whatever  their  blood,  had  become  Ameri- 
cans, one  in  speech,  thought,  and  character, 
clutching  firmly  the  land  in  which  their 
fathers  and  grandfathers  had  lived  before 
them.  They  had  lost  all  remembrance  of  Eu- 
rope and  all  sympathy  with  things  Euro- 
pean ;  they  had  become  as  emphatically  prod- 
ucts native  to  the  soil  as  were  the  tough 
and  supple  hickories  out  of  which  they 

18  To  the  western  American,  who  was  not  given 
to  nice  ethnic  distinctions,  both  German  and  Hol- 
lander were  simply  Dutchmen ;  but  occasionally 
we  find  names  like  Van  Meter,  Van  Buskirk,  Van 
Swearingen.  which  carry  their  origin  on  their 
faces  (De  Haas,  317,  319;  Doddridge,  307). 

17  The  Scandinavian  names,  in  an  unlettered 
community,  soon  become  indistinguishable  from 
those  of  the  surrounding  American's— Jansen, 
Peterson,  etc.,  being  readily  Americanized.  It  is 
therefore  rarely  that  they  show  their  parentage. 
Still,  we  now  and  then  come  across  one  that  is 
unmistakable,  as  Erickson,  for  instance  (see  p. 
51  of  Col.  Reuben  T.  Durrett's  admirable  "Life 
and  Writings  of  John  Filson,"  Louisville  and 
Cincinnati,  1884). 


1 42  THE  WINNING  OF 

fashioned  the  handles  of  their  long,  light 
axes.  Their  grim,  harsh,  narrow  lives  were 
yet  strangely  fascinating  and  full  of  adven- 
turous toil  and  danger;  none  but  natures 
as  strong,  as  freedom-loving,  and  as  full  of 
bold  defiance  as  theirs  could  have  endured 
existence  on  the  terms  which  these  men 
found -pleasurable.  Their  iron  surroundings 
made  a  mould  which  turned  out  all  alike 
in  the  same  shape.  They  resembled  one 
another,  and  they  differed  from  the  rest  of 
the  world — even  the  world  of  America,  and 
infinitely  more  the  world  of  Europe — in 
dress,  in  customs,  and  in  mode  of  life. 

Where  their  lands  abutted  on  the  more 
settled  districts  to  the  eastward,  the  popula- 
tion was  of  course  thickest,  and  their  pecul- 
iarities least.  Here  and  there  at  such  points 
they  built  small  backwoods  burgs  or  towns, 
rude,  straggling,  unkempt  villages,  with  a 
store  or  two.  a  tavern, — sometimes  good, 
often  a  "  scandalous  hog-sty,"  where  travel- 
lers \vcre  devoured  by  tleas,  and  every  one 
slept  and  ate  in  one  room.ls — a  small  log 
school-house,  and  a  little  church,  pres'ded 
over  hv  a  hard-featured  Presbvterian 
preacher,  gloomy,  earnest,  and  zealous,  prob- 
ably bigoted  and  narrow-minded,  but  never- 
theless a  great  power  for  good  in  the  com- 
munity.ly 

19  MS.  Journal  of  Matthew  Clarkson,  1766. 
See  al-o  "  Voyage  dans  Irs  Etats-L'nis."  La 
Rochcfoucaiild-Liancourt,  Paris,  L'an.  VII.,  f., 
104. 

"The  borderers  had  the  true  Calvinistic  taste 


THE  WEST  143 

However,  the  backwoodsmen  as  a  class 
neither  built  towns  nor  loved  to  dwell  therein. 
They  were  to  be  seen  at  their  best  in  the 
vast,  interminable  forests  that  formed  their 
chosen  home.  They  won  and  kept  their  lands 
by  force,  and  ever  lived  either  at  wrar  or  in 
dread  of  war.  Hence  they  settled  always  in 
groups  of  several  families  each,  all  banded 
together  for  mutual  protection.  Their  red 
foes  were  strong  and  terrible,  cunning  in 
council,  dreadful  in  battle,  merciless  beyond 
belief  in  victory.  The  men  of  the  border 
did  not  overcome  and  dispossess  cowards 
and  weaklings ;  they  marched  forth  to  spoil 
the  stout-hearted  and  to  take  for  a  prey  the 
possessions  of  the  men  of  might.  Every 
acre,  every  rood  of  ground  which  they 
claimed  had  to  be  cleared  by  the  axe  and 
held  with  the  rifle.  Not  only  was  the  chop- 
ping down  of  the  forests  the  first  prelimi- 
nary to  cultivation,,  but  it  was  also  the  surest 
means  of  subduing  the  Indians,  to  whom  the 
unending  stretches  of  choked  woodland  were 
an  impenetrable  cover  behind  which  to  move 
unseen,  a  shield  in  making  assaults,  and  a 
strong  tower  of  defence  in  repelling  counter- 
attacks. In  the  conquest  of  the  west  the 
backwoods  axe,  shapely,  well-poised,  with 
long  haft  and  light  head,  was  a  servant 
hardly  standing  second  even  to  the  rifle ;  the 
two  were  the  national  weapons  of  the  Ameri- 

in  preaching.  Clarkson,  in  his  journal  of  his 
western  trip,  mentions  with  approval  a  sermon  he 
heard  as  being  "  a  very  judicious  and  alarming 
discourse." 


144 


THE  WINNING  OF 


can  backwoodsman,  and  in  their  use  he  has 
never  been  excelled. 

When  a  group  of  families  moved  out  into 
the  wilderness  they  built  themselves  a  station 
or  stockade  fort ;  a  square  palisade  of  up- 
right logs,  loop-holed,  with  strong  block- 
houses as  bastions  at  the  corners.  One  side 
at  least  was  generally  formed  by  the  backs 
of  the  cabins  themselves,  all  standing  in  a 
row  ;  and  there  was  a  great  door  or  gate,  that 
could  be  strongly  barred  in  case  of  need. 
Often  no  iron  whatever  was  employed  in 
any  of  the  buildings.  The  square  inside  con- 
tained the.  provision  sheds  and  frequently  a 
strong  central  blockhouse  as  well.  These 
forts,  of  course,  could  not  stand  against  can- 
non, and  they  were  always  in  danger  when 
attacked  with  fire ;  but  save  for  this  risk 
of  burning  they  were  very  effectual  defences 
against  men  without  artillery,  and  were  rarely 
taken,  whether  by  whites  or  Indians,  except 
by  surprise.  Few  other  buildings  have 
played  so  important  a  part  in  our  history 
as  the  rough  stockade  fort  of  the  backwoods. 

The  families  only  lived  in  the  fort  when 
there  was  war  with  the  Indians,  and  even 
then  not  in  the  winter.  At  other  times 
they  all  separated  out  to  their  own  farms, 
universally  called  clearings,  as  they  were  al- 
ways made  by  first  cutting  off  the  timber. 
The  stumps  were  left  to  dot  the  fields  of 
grain  and  Indian  corn.  The  corn  in  especial 
was  the  stand-by  and  invariable  resource  of 
the  western  settler ;  it  was  the  crop  on  which 


THE  WEST  145 

he  relied  to  feed  his  family,  and  when  hunt- 
ing or  on  a  war  trail  the  parched  grains  were 
carried  in  his  leather  wallet  to  serve  often 
as  his  only  food.  But  he  planted  orchards 
and  raised  melons,  potatoes,  and  many  other 
fruits  and  vegetables  as  well ;  and  he  had  usu- 
ally a  horse  or  two,  cows,  and  perhaps  hogs 
and  sheep,  if  the  wolves  and  bears  did  not  in- 
terfere. If  he  was  poor  his  cabin  was  made 
of  unhewn  logs,  and  held  but  a  single  room ; 
if  well-to-do,  the  logs  were  neatly  hewed,  and 
besides  the  large  living  and  eating-room  with 
its  huge  stone  fireplace,  there  wras  also  a 
small  bedroom  and  a  kitchen,  while  a  ladder 
led  to  the  loft  above,  in  which  the  boys  slept. 
The  floor  was  made  of  puncheons,  great 
slabs  of  wood  hewed  carefully  out,  and  the 
roof  of  clapboards.  Pegs  of  wood  were 
thrust  into  the  sides  of  the  house,  to  serve 
instead  of  a  wardrobe ;  and  buck  antlers, 
thrust  into  joists,  held  the  ever-ready  rifles. 
The  table  was  a  great  clapboard  set  on  four 
wooden  legs ;  there  were  three-legged  stools, 
and  in  the  better  sort  of  houses  old-fashioned 
rocking-chairs.20  The  couch  or  bed  was 
warmly  covered  with  blankets,  bear-skins, 
and  deer-hides.21 

20  McAfee  MSS. 

21  In    the    McAfee    MSS.    there    is    an    amusing 
mention   of   the    skin    of   a   huge   bull   elk,   killed 
by    the    father,    which    the    youngsters    christened 
"  old  ellick  "  ;   they  used  to  quarrel  for  the  posses- 
sion of  it  on   cold   nights,   as  it  was  very  warm, 
though   if   the  hairside   was   turned   in   it  became 
slippery  and  apt  to  slide  off  the  bed. 


146  77/Ti   WINNING  OF 

These  clearings  lay  far  apart  from  one  an- 
other in  the  wilderness.  Up  to  the  door-sills 
of  the  log-huts  stretched  the  solemn  and 
mysterious  forest.  There  were  no  openings 
to  break  its  continuity ;  nothing  hut  endless 
leagues  on  leagues  of  shadowy,  wolf-haunted 
woodland.  The  great  trees  towered  aloft  till 
their  separate  heads  were  losl  in  the  mass  of 
foliage  above,  and  the  rank  underbrush 
choked  the  spaces  between  the  trunks.  On 
the  higher  peaks  and  ridge-crests  of  the 
mountains  there  were  straggling  birches  and 
pines,  hemlock's  and  balsam  firs  :  "  elsewhere, 
oaks,  chestnuts,  hickories,  maples,  beeches, 
walnuts,  and  great  tulip  trees  grew  side  by 
side  with  many  other  kinds.  The  sunlight 
could  not  penetrate  the  roofed  archway  of 
murmuring  leaves  :  through  the  gray  aisles  of 
the  forest  men  walked  always  in  a  kind  of 
mid-day  gloaming.  Those  who  had  lived  in 
the  open  plains  felt  when  they  came  to  the 
back- woods  as  if  their  heads  were  hooded. 
Save  on  the  border  of  a  lake,  from  a  cliff  top, 
or  on  a  bald  knob— that  is,  a  bare  hill- 
shoulder,- — they  could  not  anywhere  look  out 
for  any  distance. 

All  the  land  was  shrouded  in  one  vast 
forest.  It  covered  the  mountains  from  crest 

"On  the  mountains  the  climate,  flora,  and 
fauna  were  all  tlvmr  of  the  north,  not  of  the  ad- 
jacent southern  lowlands.  The  ruffed  prour-e, 
red  squirrel,  -now  liird.  various  Canadian  \varh- 
ler-,  and  a  peculiar  -pivies  of  boreal  field-mouse, 
the  crato'iivs,  are  all  found  as  far  south  as  the 
Great  Smokies. 


WEST  147 

to  river-bed,  filled  the  plains,  and  stretched 
in  sombre  and  melancholy  wastes  towards  the 
Mississippi.  All  that  it  contained,  all  that 
lay  hid  within  it  and  beyond  it,  none  could 
tell ;  men  only  knew  that  their  boldest  hunt- 
ers, however  deeply  they  had  penetrated,  had 
not  yet  gone  through  it,  that  it  was  the  home 
of  the  game  they  followed  and  the  wild  beasts 
that  preyed  on  their  flocks,  and  that  deep  in 
its  tangled  depths  lurked  their  red  foes, 
hawk-eyed  and  wolf-hearted. 

Backwoods  society  was  simple,  and  the 
duties  and  rights  of  each  member  of  the 
family  were  plain  and  clear.  The  man  was 
the  armed  protector  and  provider,  the  bread- 
winner; the  woman  was  the  housewife  and 
chilcl-bearer.  They  married  young  and  their 
families  were  large,  for  they  were  strong 
and  healthy,  and  their  success  in  life  de- 
pended on  their  own  stout  arms  and  willing 
hearts.  There  was  everywhere  great  equal- 
ity of  conditions.  Land  was  plenty  and  all 
else  scarce;  so  courage,  thrift,  and  industry 
were  sure  of  their  reward.  All  had  small 
farms,  with  the  few  stock  necessary  to  culti- 
vate them;  the  farms  being  generally  placed 
in  the  hollows,  the  division  lines  between 
them,  if  they  were  close  together,  being  the 
tops  of  the  ridges  and  the  water-courses,  es- 
pecially the  former.  The  buildings  of  each 
farm  were  usually  at  its  lowest  point,  as  if  in 
the  centre  of  an  amphitheatre.2"  Each  was 

28  Doddridge's  "  Settlements  and  Indian  Wars," 
(i33)  written  by  an  eye-witness;  it  is  the  most 


I48  THE   WINNING  OF 

on  an  average  of  about  400  acres,24  but  some- 
times more.25  Tracts  of  low,  swampy 
grounds,  possibly  some  miles  from  the  cabin, 
were  cleared  for  meadows,  the  fodder  being 
stacked,  and  hauled  home  in  winter. 
'  Each  backwoodsman  was  not  only  a  small 
farmer  but  also  a  hunter ;  for  his  wife  and 
children  depended  for  their  meat  upon  the 
venison  and  bear's  flesh  procured  by  his  rifle. 
The  people  were  restless  and  always  on  the 
move.  After  being  a  little  while  in  a  place, 
some  of  the  men  would  settle  down  perma- 
nently, while  others  would  again  drift  off, 
farming  and  hunting  alternately  to  support 
their  families.20  The.  backwoodsman's  dress 

valuable  book  we  have  on  old-time  frontier  ways 
and  customs. 

:*  The  land  laws  differed  at  different  times  in 
different  colonies;  but  this  was  the  usual  sixe  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  of  the  farms  along 
the  western  frontier,  as  under  the  laws  of  Vir- 
ginia, then  obtaining  from  the  ITolston  to  the 
Alleghany,  this  amount  was  allotted  every  settler 
who  built  a  cabin  or  raised  a  crop  of  corn. 

"  Re-ide  the  right  to  400  acres,  there  was  also 
a  preemption  right  to  i.ooo  acres  more  adjoining 
to  be  secured  by  a  land-office  warrant.  As  between 
themselves  the  settlers  had  what  they  called 
"  tomahawk  rights,''  made  by  -imply  deadening 
a  certain  number  of  trees  with  a  hatchet.  They 
were  similar  to  the  rights  conferred  in  the  we^t 
now  by  what  is  called  a  "  claim  shack  "  or  hut, 
built  to  hold  some  good  piece  of  land  ;  that  is,  they 
conferred  no  title  whatever,  except  that  some- 
times men  would  pay  for  them  rather  than  have 
trouble  with  the  claimant. 

M  McAfee  MSS.  (particularly  Autobiography  of 
Robert  McAfee ). 


THE  WEST  149 

was  in  great  part  borrowed  from  his  In- 
dian foes.  He  wore  a  fur  cap  or  felt  hat, 
moccasins,  and  either  loose,  thin  trousers,  or 
else  simply  leggings  of  buckskin  or  elk-hide, 
and  the  Indian  breech-clout.  He.  was  always 
clad  in  the  fringed  hunting-shirt,  of  home- 
spun or  buckskin,  the  most  picturesque  and 
distinctively  national  dress  ever  worn  in 
America.  It  was  a  loose,  smock  or  tunic, 
reaching  nearly  to  the  knees,  and  held  in  at 
the  waist  by  a  broad  belt,  from  which  hung 
the  tomahawk  and  scalping-knife.27  His 
weapon  was  the  long,  small-bore,  flint-lock 
rifle,  clumsy,  and  ill-balanced,  but  exceed- 
ingly accurate.  It  was  very  heavy,  and 
when  upright,  reached  to  the  chin  of  a  tall 
man  ;  for  the  barrel  of  thick,  soft  iron,  was 
four  feet  in  length,  while  the  stock  was  short, 
and  the  butt  scooped  out.  Sometimes  it  was 
plain,  sometimes  ornamented.  It  was  gener- 
ally bored  out — or,  as  the.  expression  then 
was  "  sawed  out  " — to  carry  a  ball  of  seventy, 
more  rarely  of  thirty  or  forty,  to  the  pound  ; 
and  was  usually  of  backwoods  manufacture.28 
The  marksman  almost  always  fired  from  a 

17  To  this  day  it  is  worn  in  parts  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  even  occasionally,  here  and  there, 
in  the  Alleghanies. 

28  The  above  is  the  description  of  one  of  Boone's 
rifles,  now  in  the  possession  of  Col.  Durrett.  Ac- 
cording to  the  inscription  on  the  barrel  it  was 
made  at  Louisville  (Ky.),  in  1782,  by  M.  Humble. 
It  is  perfectly  plain;  whereas  one  of  Floyd's  rifles, 
which  I  have  also  seen,  is  much  more  highly  fin- 
ished, and  with  some  ornamentation. 


'5° 


THE  ll'lXXIXG  OF 


rest,  and  rarely  at  a  very  long  range;  and 
the  shooting  \vas  marvellously  accurate.23 

In  the  backwoods  there  was  very  little 
money ;  barter  was  the  common  form  of  ex- 
change, and  peltries  were  often  used  as  a 
circulating  medium,  a  beaver,  otter,  fisher, 
dressed  buckskin  or  large  bear-skin  being 
reckoned  as  equal  to  two  foxes  or  wildcats, 
four  coons,  or  eight  minks. :!"  A  young  man 
inherited  nothing  from  his  father  but  his 
strong  frame  and  eager  heart ;  but  before 
him  lay  a  whole  continent  wherein  to  pitch 
his  farm,  and  he  felt  ready  to  marry  as  soon 
as  he  became  of  age,  even  though  he  had 
nothing  but  his  clothes,  his  horses,  his  axe, 
and  his  rifle."1  If  a  girl  was  well  off,  and 
had  been  careful  and  industrious,  she  might 
herself  bring  a  dowry,  of  a  cow  and  a  calf, 
a  brood  mare,  a  bed  well  stocked  with 
blankets,  and  a  chest  containing  her  clothes  3- 
— the  latter  not  very  elaborate,  for  a  woman's 
dress  consisted  of  a  hat  or  poke  bonnet,  a 
"  bed  gown,"  perhaps  a  jacket,  and  a  linsey 
petticoat,  while  her  feet  were  thrust  into 
coarse  shoepack>  or  moccasins.  Fine  clothes 

18  For  the  opinion  of  a  foreign  military  observer 
on  the  phenomena!  arnirnry  of  backwoods  tnark- 
mansliip,  see  (ieneral  Victor  Collot's  "Voyage  en 
Amerique."  p.  24^. 

*JMS.  copy  of  Matthew  Clarkson's  Journal  in 
1766. 

M  McAfee  MSS.  (Autobiography  of  Robert  R. 
McAfee). 

"Do. 


THE  WEST  151 

were  rare ;  a  suit  of  such  cost  more  than  200 
acres  of  good  land.33 

The  first  lesson  the  backwoodsmen  learnt 
was  the  necessity  of  self-help;  the  next,  that 
such  a  community  could  only  thrive  if  all 
joined  in  helping-  one  another.  Log-rollings, 
house-raisings,  house-warmings,  corn-shuck- 
ings,  quiltings,  and  the  like  were  occasions 
when  all  the  neighbors  came  together  to  do 
what  the  family  itself  could  hardly  accom- 
plish alone.  Every  such  meeting  was  the  oc- 
casion of  a  frolic  and  dance  for  the  young 
people,  whisky  and  rum  being  plentiful,  and 
the  host  exerting  his  utmost  power  to  spread 
the  table  with  backwoods  delicacies — bear- 
meat  and  venison,  vegetables  from  the 
"  truck  patch,"  where  squashes,  melons, 
beans,  and  the  like  were  grown,  wild  fruits, 
bowls  of  milk,  and  apple  pies,  which  were 
the  acknowledged  standard  of  luxury.  At 
the  better  houses  there  was  metheglin  or 
small  beer,  cider,  cheese,  and  biscuits.34  Tea 
was  so  little  known  that  many  of  the  back- 
woods people  were  not  aware  it  was  a  bever- 
age and  at  first  attempted  to  eat  the  leaves 
with  salt  or  butter.35 

33  Memoirs   of   the   Hist.    Soc.    of    Perm.,    1826. 
Account  of  first   settlements,  etc.,  by  John  Watson 
(1804). 

34  Do.     An   admirable   account   of  what   such   a 
frolic    was    some   thirty-five   years   later    is   to   be 
found  in  Edward  Eggleston's  "  Circuit  Rider." 

35  Such  incidents  are  mentioned  again  and  again 
by  Watson,  Mil  fort,  Doddridge,  Carr,  and  other 
writers. 


152  THE  WINNING  OF 

The  young  men  prided  themselves  on  their 
bodily  strength,  and  were  always  eager  to 
contend  against  one  another  in  athletic 
games,  such  as  wrestling,  racing,  jumping, 
and  lifting  flour-barrels;  and  they  also 
sought  distinction  in  vicing  with  one  another 
at  their  work.  Sometimes  they  strove 
against  one  another  singly,  sometimes  they 
divided  into  parties,  each  bending  all  its  ener- 
gies to  be  first  in  shucking  a  given  heap  of 
corn  or  cutting  (with  sickles)  an  allotted 
patch  of  wheat.  Among  the  men  the  bravos 
or  bullies  often  were  dandies  also  in  the 
backwoods  fashions,  wearing  their  hair  long 
and  delighting  in  the  rude  finery  of  hunt- 
ing-shirts embroidered  with  porcupine  quills  ; 
they  were  loud,  boastful,  and  profane,  given 
to  coarsely  bantering  one  another.  Brutally 
savage  fights  were  frequent ;  the  combatants, 
who  were  surrounded  by  rings  of  interested 
spectators,  striking,  kicking,  biting,  and 
gouging.  The  fall  of  one  of  them  did  not 
stop  the  fight,  for  the  man  who  was  down 
was  maltreated  without  mercy  until  he  called 
"  enough."  The  victor  always  bragged  sav- 
agely of  his  prowess,  often  leaping  on  a 
stump,  crowing  and  flapping  his  arms.  This 
last  was  a  thoroughly  American  touch  :  but 
otherwise  one  of  these  contests  was  less  a 
boxing  match  than  a  kind  of  backwoods 
pankrdtion,  no  less  revolting  than  its  ancient 
prototype  of  Olympic,  fame.  Yet,  if  the  un- 
couth borderers  were  as  brutal  as  the  highly 
polished  Greeks,  they  were  more  manly;  de- 


THE  WEST  153 

feat  was  not  necessarily  considered  disgrace, 
a  man  often  fighting  when  he  \vas  certain  to 
be  beaten,  while  the  onlookers  neither  hooted 
nor  pelted  the  conquered.  We  first  hear  of 
the  noted  scout  and  Indian  fighter,  Simon 
Kenton,  as  leaving  a  rival  for  dead  after  one 
of  these  ferocious  duels,  and  fleeing  from  his 
home  in  terror  of  the  punishment  that  might 
follow  the  deed.36  Such  fights  were  specially 
frequent  when  the  backwoodsmen  went  into 
the  little  frontier  towns  to  see  horse  races 
or  fairs. 

A  wedding  was  always  a  time  of  festival. 
If  there  was  a  church  anywhere  near,  the 
bride  rode  thither  on  horseback  behind  her 
father,  and  after  the.  service  her  pillion  was 

18  McClung's  "  Western  Adventures."  All  east- 
ern and  European  observers  comment  with  horror 
on  the  border  brawls,  especially  the  eye-gouging. 
Englishmen,  of  course,  in  true  provincial  spirit, 
complacently  contrasted  them  with  their  own  box- 
ing fights;  Frenchmen,  equally  of  course,  were 
more  struck  by  the  resemblances  than  the  differ- 
ences between  the  two  forms  of  combat.  Milfort 
gives  a  very  amusing  account  of  the  "  Anglo-Ameri- 
cains  d'une  espece  particuliere,"  whom  he  calls 
"  crakeurs  ou  gaugeurs,"  (crackers  or  gougers). 
He  remarks  that  he  found  them  "  tons  borgnes," 
(as  a  result  of  their  pleasant  fashion  of  eye- 
gouging — a  backwoods  bully  in  speaking  of  an- 
other would  often  threaten  to  "  measure  the  length 
of  his  eye-strings,")  and  that  he  doubts  if  there 
can  exist  in  the  world  "  des  homines  plus  me- 
chants  quo  ces  habitants." 

These  tights  were  among  the  numerous  back- 
woods habits  that  showed  Scotch  rather  than 
English  ancestry.  "  I  attempted  to  keep  him 


I54  THE   ll'INXLVG  OF 

shifted  to  the  bridegroom's  steed.37  If,  as 
generally  happened,  there  was  no  church,  the 
groom  ami  his  friends,  all  armed,  rode  to 
the  house  of  the  bride's  father,  plenty  of 
whisky  being  drunk,  and  the  men  racing 
recklessly  along  the  narrow  bridle-paths,  for 
there  were  few  roads  or  wheeled  vehicles  in 
the  backwoods.  At  the  bride's  house  the 
ceremony  was  performed,  and  then  a  huge 
dinner  was  eaten  ;  after  which  the  fiddling 
and  dancing  began,  and  were  continued  all 
the  afternoon,  and  most  of  the  night  as  well. 
A  party  of  girls  stole  off  the  bride  and  put 
her  to  bed  in  the  loft  above ;  and  a  party  of 
young  men  then  performed  the  like  service 
for  the  groom.  The  fun  was  hearty  and 
coarse,  and  the  toasts  always  included  one 
to  the  young  couple,  with  the  wish  that  they 
might  have  many  big  children  ;  for  as  long  as 
they  could  remember  the  backwoodsmen  had 
lived  at  war,  while  looking  ahead  they  saw  no 
chance  of  its  ever  stopping,  and  so  each  son 
was  regarded  as  a  future  warrior,  a  help  to 
the  whole  community. 3S  The  neighbors  all 
joined  again  in  chopping  and  rolling  the  logs 
for  the  young  couple's  future  house,  then  in 
raising  the  house  itself,  and  finally  in  feast- 
ing and  clancing  at  the  house-warming. 

Funerals  were  simple,  the  dead  body  be- 
down,  in  order  to  improve  my  success,  after  the 
manner  of  my  own  country  "  ("  Roderick  Ran- 
dom "). 

"  Watson. 

M  Doddridge. 


THE  WEST 


155 


ing  carried  to  the  grave  in  a  coffin  slung  on 
poles  and  borne  by  four  men. 

There  was  not  much  schooling,  and  few 
boys  or  girls  learnt  much  more  than  read- 
ing, writing,  and  ciphering  up  to  the  rule  of 
three.39  Where  the  school-houses  existed 
they  were  only  dark,  mean  log-huts,  and  if 
in  the  southern  colonies,  were  generally 
placed  in  the  so-called  "  old  fields,"  or  aban- 
doned farms  grown  up  with  pines.  The 
schoolmaster  boarded  about  with  the  fami- 
lies ;  his  learning  was  rarely  great,  nor  was 
his  discipline  good,  in  spite  of  the  frequency 
and  severity  of  the  callings.  The  price  for 
such  tuition  was  at  the  rate  of  twenty  shil- 
lings a  year,  in  Pennsylvania  currency.40 

Each  family  did  every  thing  that  could  be 
done  for  itself.  The  father  and  sons  worked 
with  axe,  hoe,  and  sickle.  Almost  every 
house  contained  a  loom,  and  almost  every 
woman  was  a  weaver.  Linsey-woolsey,  made 
from  flax  grown  near  the  cabin,  and  of  wool 
from  the  backs  of  the  few  sheep,  was  the 
warmest  and  most  substantial  cloth ;  and 
when  the  flax  crop  failed  and  the  flocks  were 
destroyed  by  wolves,  the  children  had  but 
scanty  covering  to  hide  their  nakedness. 
The  man  tanned  the  buckskin,  the  woman 
was  tailor  and  shoemaker,  and  made  the 
deer-skin  sifters  to  be  used  instead  of  bolt- 
ing-cloths. There  were  a  few  pewter  spoons 
in  use ;  but  the  table  furniture  consisted 

89  McAfee  MSS. 
<0  Watson. 

8—6 


;;5  THE    HY.V.V/.VG   O/7 

main!;,  of  hand-made  trenchers,  platters, 
noggins,  an  1  !  y.vls.  The  cradle  was  of 
pee.ed  hick  r;.  :. ark.41  Ploughshares  had  to 
be  imported,  but  harrows  and  sleds  were 
made  without  iirnculty  :  and  the  cooper  work 
was  well  done.  Char:  beds  were  thrown  on 
the  floor  of  the  loft,  if  the  house-owner  was 
well  off.  Each  :abin  had  a  hand-mill  and 
a  hominv  ':.  1  .  _!-:  :  the  last  was  borrowed  from 
t .".-_•  Indians,  an  .  v.as  on.y  a  .arge  bloc.-;  01 
'..  with  a  hole  burned  in  the  top.  as  a 
mortar,  where  t::e  pest.e  was  worked.  If 
tnere  were  an~.'  -u^'ar  ntap.es  accessiD.e.  tr.ey 
were  tapped  ever;.'  vear. 

could  not  be  prc  luced  in  the  back'-v^ods.    In 

order  to  get  them  each  family  collected  dtir- 

ing  the  year  all  the  furs  possible,  these  bc- 

:n^"  valuable  an  .  yet  easily  carried  on  pack- 

h.orses,  the  sole  n:van-  of  fan-port.     Then, 

after  seeding  time,  in  the  fall,  the  people  of  a 

rh      '.  ordinarily  ;oir.ed    in    sending 

a  train  ;f  peltry-laden  pack-horse;  to 

some  large   sea-c   as:    :-r  tidal-river  trading 

a.,  na  i  ',•:.  -  .'.vi.j  roun  '.  tneir  ner.<  i  tne  c.ap- 
p-rr^  were  ^topped  : "rin-  the  day.  but  when 
the  train  v.as  halted  for  the  night,  and  the 
h:rses  were  ho1  '  !•  :  an  !  turn.(  the 

Several 


ei     an     interesting 


THE   -.VEST 


'57 


158  THE  WINNING  OF 

the  wolves  sometimes  went  mad,  and  the  men 
who  then  encountered  them  were  almost  cer- 
lain  to  be  bitten  and  to  die  of  hydrophobia.44 
Every  true  backwoodsman  was  a  hunter. 
\Vild  turkeys  were  plentiful.  The  pigeons  at 
times  filled  the  woods  with  clouds  that  hid 
the  sun  and  broke  down  the  branches  on  their 
roosting  grounds  as  if  a  whirlwind  had 
passed.  The  black  and  gray  squirrels 
swarmed,  devastating  the  corn-fields,  and  at 
times  gathering  in  immense  companies  and 
migrating  across  mountain  and  river.  The 
hunters'  ordinary  game  was  the  deer,  and 
after  that  the  bear  ;  the  elk  was  already  grow- 
ing uncommon.  Xo  form  of  labor  is  harder 
than  the  chase,  and  none  is  so  fascinating 
nor  so  excellent  as  a  training-school  for  war. 
The  successful  still-hunter  of  necessity  pos- 
sessed skill  in  hiding  and  in  creeping  noise- 
lessly upon  the  wary  quarry,  as  well  as  in 
imitating  the  notes  and  calls  of  the  different 
beasts  and  birds :  skill  in  the  use  of  the  rifle 
and  in  throwing  the  tomahawk  he  already 
had  ;  and  he  perforce  acquired  keenness  of 

("Hunting  Trips  of  a  Ranchman").  Even  the 
wolves  occasionally  attacked  man;  Aububon  gives 
an  example. 

44  Doddridge,  104.  Dodge,  in  his  "  Hunting 
Grounds  of  the  Great  West."  gives  some  recent 
instances.  Bears  were  sometimes  dangerous  to 
human  life.  Doddridge,  64.  A  slave  on  the  plan- 
tation of  my  great-grandfather  in  Georgia  was 
once  regularly  scalped  by  a  she-hear  whom  he 
had  tried  to  rob  of  her  ciib<,  and  ever  after  he 
wa>  called,  both  by  the  other  negroes  and  by  the 
children  on  the  plantation,  "  Bear  Bob." 


THE  WEST  159 

eye,  thorough  acquaintance  with  woodcraft, 
and  the  power  of  standing  the  severest 
strains  of  fatigue,  hardship  and  exposure.  He 
lived  out  in  the  woods  for  many  months  with 
no  food  but  meat,  and  no  shelter  whatever, 
unless  he  made  a  leanto  of  brush  or  crawled 
into  a  hollow  sycamore. 

Such  training  stood  the  frontier  folk  in 
good  stead  when  they  were  pitted  against 
the  Indians ;  without  it  they  could  not  even 
have  held  their  own,  and  the  white  advance 
would  have  been  absolutely  checked.  Our 
frontiers  were  pushed  westward  by  the  war- 
like skill  and  adventurous  personal  prowess 
of  the  individual  settlers ;  regular  armies  by 
themselves  could  have  done  little.  For  one 
square  mile  the  regular  armies  added  to  our 
domain,  the  settlers  added  ten, — a  hundred 
would  probably  be  nearer  the  truth.  A  race 
of  peaceful,  unwarlike  farmers  would  have 
been  helpless  before  such  foes  as  the  red  In- 
dians, and  no  auxiliary  military  force  would 
have  protected  them  or  enabled  them  to  move 
westward.  Colonists  fresh  from  the  old 
world,  no  matter  how  thrifty,  steady-going, 
and  industrious,  could  not  hold  their  own  on 
the  frontier ;  they  had  to  settle  where  they 
were  protected  from  the  Indians  by  a  living 
barrier  of  bold  and  self-reliant  American 
borderers.45  The  west  would  never  have 
been  settled  save  for  the  fierce  courage  and 
the  eager  desire  to  brave  danger  so  charac- 
teristic of  the  stalwart  backwoodsmen. 

40  Schopf,  I.,  404. 


160  THE  WINNING  OF 

These  armed  hunters,  \voodchoppers,  and 
farmers  were  their  own  soldiers.  They  built 
and  manned  their  own  forts;  they  did  their 
own  fighting  under  their  own  commanders. 
There  were  no  regiments  of  regular  troops 
along  the  frontier.40  In  the  event  of  an  In- 
dian inroad  each  borderer  had  to  defend  him- 
self until  there  was  time  for  them  all  to 
gather  together  to  repel  or  avenge  it.  Ev- 
ery man  was  accustomed  to  the  use  of  arm-'. 
from  his  childhood ;  when  a  boy  was  twelve 
years  old  lie  was  given  a  rifle  and  made  a 
fort-soldier,  with  a  loophole  where  he  was  to 
stand  if  the  station  was  attacked.  The  war 
was  never-ending,  for  even  the  times  of  so- 
called  peace  were  broken  by  forays  and  mur- 
ders ;  a  man  might  grow  from  babyhood  to 
middle  age  on  the  border,  and  yet  never  re- 
member a  year  in  which  some  one  of  his 
neighbors  did  not  fall  a  victim  to  the  Indians. 

There  was  everywhere  a  rude-  military  or- 
ganization, which  included  o1!  the  able-bodied 
men  of  the  community.  F.vcrv  settlement 
had  its  colnnels  and  captain;; :  but  these  of- 
ficers, both  in  their  training  and  in  the  au- 
thority they  exercised,  corresponded  much 
more  nearly  to  Indian  chiefs  than  to  the  reg- 
ular army  men  whose  titles  they  bore.  They 
had  no  means  whatever  of  enforcing  their 
orders,  and  their  tumultuous  and  disorderly 
levies  of  sinewy  riflemen  were  hardly  as  well 

49  The  insignificant  garrisons  at  one  or  two 
places  need  not  be  taken  into  account,  as  they 
were  of  absolutely  no  effect. 


THE  WEST  161 

disciplined  as  the  Indians  themselves.47  The 
superior  officer  could  advise,  entreat,  lead, 
and  influence  his  men,  but  he  could  not  com- 
mand them,  or,  if  he  did,  the  men  obeyed 
him  only  just  so  far  as  it  suited  them.  If 
an  officer  planned  a  scout  or  campaign,  those 
who  thought  proper  accompanied  him,  and 
the  others  stayed  at  home,  and  even  those 
who  went  out  came  back  if  the  fit  seized 
them,  or  perchance  followed  the  lead  of  an 
insubordinate  junior  officer  whom  they  liked 
better  than  they  did  his  superior.48  There 
was  no  compulsion  to  perform  military  duties 

17  Brantz  Mayer,  in  "  Tah-Gah-Jute,  or  Logan 
and  Cresap "  (Albany,  1867),  ix.,  speaks  of  the 
pioneers  as  "  comparative  few  in  numbers,"  and 
of  the  Indian  as  "  numerous,  and  fearing  not 
only  the  superior  weapons  of  his  foe,  but  the  or- 
ganization and  discipline  which  together  made 
the  comparatively  few  equal  to  the  greater  num- 
ber." This  sentence  embodies  a  variety  of  popular 
misconceptions.  The  pioneers  were  more  numer- 
ous than  the  Indians;  the  Indians  were  generally, 
at  least  in  the  northwest,  as  well  armed  as  the 
whites,  and  in  military  matters  the  Indians  were 
actually  (see  Smith's  narrative,  and  almost  all 
competent  authorities)  superior  in  organization 
and  discipline  to  their  pioneer  foes.  Most  of  our 
battles  against  the  Indians  of  the  western  woods, 
whether  won  or  lost,  were  fought  by  superior 
numbers  on  our  side.  Individually,  or  in  small 
parties,  the  frontiersmen  gradually  grew  to  be  a 
match  for  the  Indians,  man  for  man,  at  least  in 
many  cases  but  this  was  only  true  of  large  bodies 
of  them  if  they  were  commanded  by  some  one 
naturally  able  to  control  their  unruly  spirits. 

4S  As  examples  take  Clark's  last  Indian  cam- 
paign and  the  battle  of  Blue  Licks. 


162  THE  WINNING  OF 

beyond  dread  of  being  disgraced  in  the  eyes 
of  the  neighbors,  and  there  was  no  pecuniary 
reward  for  performing  them ;  nevertheless 
the  moral  sentiment  of  a  backwoods  commu- 
nity was  too  robust  to  tolerate  habitual  re- 
missness  in  military  affairs,  and  the  coward 
and  laggard  were  treated  with  utter  scorn, 
and  were  generally  in  the  end  either  laughed 
out,  or  "  hated  out,"  of  the  neighborhood, 
or  else  got  rid  of  in  a  still  more  summary 
manner.  Among  a  people  naturally  brave 
and  reckless,  this  public  opinion  acted  fairly 
effectively,  and  there  was  generally  but  lit- 
tle shrinking  from  military  service.49 

A  backwoods  levy  was  formidable  because 
of  the  high  average  courage  and  prowess  of 
the  individuals  composing  it;  it  was  on  its 
own  ground  much  more  effective  than  a  like 
force  of  regular  soldiers,  but  of  course  it 
could  not  be  trusted  on  a  long  campaign. 
The  backwoodsmen  used  their  rifles  better 
than  the  Indians,  and  also  stood  punishment 
better,  but  they  never  matched  them  in  sur- 
prises nor  in  skill  in  taking  advantage  of 
cover,  and  very  rarely  equalled  their  disci- 
pline in  the  battle  itself.  After  all,  the 
pioneer  was  primarily  a  husbandman ;  the 
time  spent  in  chopping  trees  and  tilling  the 
soil  his  foe  spent  in  preparing  for  or  prac- 
tising forest  warfare,  and  so  the  former, 
thanks  to  the  exercise  of  the  very  qualities 
which  in  the  end  gave  him  the  possession  of 
the  soil,  could  not,  as  a  rule,  hope  to  rival  his 

*»  Doddridge,  161,  185. 


THE  WEST  163 

antagonist  in  the  actual  conflict  itself.  When 
large  bodies  of  the  red  men  and  white 
borderers  were  pitted  against  each  other,  the 
former  were  if  any  thing  the  more  likely  to 
have  the  advantage.50  But  the  whites  soon 
copied  from  the  Indians  their  system  of  in- 
dividual and  private  warfare,  and  they  prob- 
ably caused  their  foes  far  more  damage  and 
loss  in  this  way  than  in  the  large  expedi- 
tions. Many  noted  border  scouts  and  In- 
dian fighters — such  men  as  Boone,  Kenton, 
Wetzel,  Brady,  McCulloch,  Mansker 51 — 
grew  to  overmatch  their  Indian  foes  at  their 
own  game,  and  held  themselves  above  the 
most  renowned  warriors.  But  these  men  car- 
ried the  spirit  of  defiant  self-reliance  to  such 
an  extreme  that  their  best  work  was  always 

m  At  the  best  such  a  frontier  levy  was  com- 
posed  (it  men  of  the  type  of  Leatherstocking,  Ish- 
mael  Bu-h,  Tom  Hutter,  Harry  March,  Bill 
Kirby.  and  Aaron  Thousandacres.  When  ani- 
mated by  a  common  and  overmastering  passion, 
such  a  body  would  be  almost  irresistible ;  but  it 
could  not  hold  together  long,  and  there  was  gen- 
erally a  plentiful  mixture  of  men  less  trained  in 
woodcraft,  and  therefore  useless  in  forest  fighting, 
while  if,  as  must  generally  be  the  case  in  any 
body,  there  were  a  number  of  cowards  in  the 
ranks,  the  total  lack  of  discipline  not  only  per- 
mitted them  to  flinch  from  their  work  with  im- 
punity, but  also  allowed  them,  by  their  example, 
to  infect  and  demoralize  their  braver  companions. 

"  Haywood,  DeHaas,  Withers,  McClung,  and 
other  border  annalists,  give  innumerable  anec- 
dotes alxnit  these  and  many  other  men,  illustrating 
their  feats  of  fierce  prowess  and,  too  often,  of 
brutal  ferocity. 

8— 6B 


1 64  THE   ll'INXIXG  OP 

done  when  they  were  alone  or  in  small  par- 
ties of  but  four  or  five.  They  made  long 
forays  after  scalps  and  horses,  going  a  won- 
derful distance,  enduring  extreme  hardship, 
risking  the  most  terrible  of  deaths,  and  harry- 
ing the  hostile  tribes  into  a  madness  of  ter- 
ror and  revengeful  hatred. 

As  it  was  in  military  matters,  so  it  was 
with  the  administration  of  justice  by  the 
frontiersmen  ;  they  had  few  courts,  and  knew 
but  little  law,  and  yet  they  contrived  to  pre- 
serve order  and  morality  with  rough  effect- 
iveness, by  combining  to  frown  down  on  the 
grosser  misdeeds,  and  to  punish  the  more 
flagrant  misdoers.  Perhaps  the  spirit  in 
which  they  acted  can  be  best  shown  by  the 
recital  of  an  incident  in  the  career  of  the 
three  McAfee  brothers,  who  were  among  the 
pioneer  hunters  of  Kentucky/''-  Previous  to 
trying  to  move  their  families  out  to  the  new 
country,  they  made  a  cache  of  clothing,  im- 
plements, and  provisions,  which  in  their  ab- 
sence was  broken  into  and  plundered.  They 
caught  the  thief,  "  a  little  diminutive,  red- 
headed white  man,"  a  runaway  convict 
servant  from  one  of  the  tide-water  counties 
of  Virginia.  Tn  the  first  impul-e  of  anger  at 
finding  that  he  was  the  criminal,  one  of  the 
McAfees  rushed  at  him  to  kill  him  with  his 
tomahawk  :  but  the  weapon  turned,  the  man 
was  only  knocked  drmn.  and  his  assailant's 

"McAfee  MSS.  The  story  i<=  t..M  Loth  in  the 
"  Antnliiojjrnhy  of  Rnhrrt  McAfee."  and  in  the 
"History  <  f  the-  Fir~t  Settlement  on  Sa'.t  River." 


THE   WEST  165 

gusty  anger  subsided  as  quickly  as  it  had 
risen,  giving  way  to  a  desire  to  do  stern  but 
fair  justice.  So  the  three  captors  formed 
themselves  into  a  court,  examined  into  the 
case,  heard  the  man  in  his  o\vn  defence,  and 
after  due  consultation  decided  that  "'  accord- 
ing to  their  opinion  of  the  laws  he  had  for- 
feited his  life,  and  ought  to  be  hung  "  ;  but 
none  of  them  were  willing  to  execute  the  sen- 
tence in  cold  blood,  and  they  ended  by  tak- 
ing their  prisoner  back  to  his  master. 

The  incident  was  characteristic  in  more 
than  one  way.  The  prompt  desire  of  the 
backwoodsman  to  avenge  his  own  wrong ; 
his  momentary  furious  anger,  speedily 
quelled  and  replaced  by  a  dogged  determina- 
tion to  be  fair  but  to  exact  full  retribution ; 
the  acting  entirely  without  regard  to  legal 
forms  or  legal  officials,  but  yet  in  a  spirit 
which  spoke  well  for  the  doer's  determina- 
tion to  uphold  the  essentials  that  make  honest 
men  law-abiding;  together  with  the  good 
faith  of  the  whole  proceeding,  and  the  amus- 
ing ignorance  that  it  would  have  been  in  the 
least  unlawful  to  execute  their  own  rather 
harsh  sentence — all  these  were  typical  fron- 
tier traits.  Some  of  the  same  traits  appear  in 
the  treatment  commonly  adopted  in  the 
backwoods  to  meet  the  case — of  painfully 
frequent  occurrence  in  the  times  of  Indian 
wars — where  a  man  taken  prisoner  by  the 
savages,  and  supposed  to  be  murdered,  re- 
turned after  two  or  three  years'  captivity, 
only  to  find  his  wife  married  again.  In  the 


166  THE   U'IN.\L\G  01' 

wilderness  a  husband  was  almost  a  necessity 
to  a  woman  ;  her  surroundings  made  the  loss 
of  the  protector  and  provider  an  appalling 
calamity;  and  the  widow,  nomatter how  sin- 
cere her  sorrow,  soon  remarried — for  there 
were  many  suitors  where  women  were  not 
over-plenty.  If  in  such  a  case  the  one 
thought  dead  returned,  the  neighbors  and  the 
parties  interested  seem  frequently  to  have 
held  a  sort  of  informal  court,  and  to  have 
decided  that  the  woman  should  choose  either 
of  the  two  men  she  wished  to  be  her  husband, 
the  other  being  pledged  to  submit  to  the 
decision  and  leave  the  settlement.  Evidently 
no  one  had  the  least  idea  that  there  was 
anv  legal  irregularity  in  such  proceedings.53 
The  McAfees  themselves  and  the  escaped 
convict  servant  whom  they  captured  typify 
the  two  prominent  classes  of  the  backwoods 
people.  The  frontier,  in  spite  of  the  out- 
ward uniformity  of  means  and  manners,  is 
preeminently  the  place  of  sharp  contrasts. 
The  two  extremes  of  society,  the  strongest, 
best,  and  most  adventurous,  and  the  weak- 
est, most  shiftless,  and  vicious,  are  those 
which  seem  naturally  to  drift  to  the  border. 
Most  of  the  men  who  came  to  the  backwoods 
to  hew  out  homes  and  rear  families  were 
stern,  manly,  and  honest  :  but  there  was  also 
a  large  influx  of  people  drawn  from  the  worst 

'3  Incidents  of  this  sort  arc  frequently  men- 
tioned. Generally  the  \vnnian  \vent  hack  to  her 
liiM  husband.  "  Farly  Time-  in  Middle  Tennes- 
see," John  Carr,  Nashville,  1859,  p.  231. 


THE   WEST  167 

immigrants  that  perhaps  ever  were  brought 
to  America — the  mass  of  convict  servants, 
redemptioners,  and  the  like,  who  formed  such 
an  excessively  undesirable  substratum  to  the 
otherwise  excellent  population  of  the  tide- 
water regions  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas.5* 
Many  of  the  southern  crackers  or  poor  whites 
spring  from  this  class,  which  also  in  the 
backwoods  gave  birth  to  generations  of  vio- 
lent and  hardened  criminals,  and  to  an  even 
greater  number  of  shiftless,  lazy,  cowardly 
cumberers  of  the  earth's  surface.  They  had 
in  many  places  a  permanently  bad  effect  upon 
the  tone  of  the  whole  community. 

Moreover,  the  influence  of  heredity  was  no 
more  plainly  perceptible  than  was  the  extent 
of  individual  variation.  If  a  member  of  a 
bad  family  wished  to  reform,  he  had  every 
opportunity  to  do  so ;  if  a  member  of  a  good 
family  had  vicious  propensities,  there  was 
nothing  to  check  them.  All  qualities,  good 
and  bad,  are  intensified  and  accentuated  in 
the  life  of  the  wilderness.  The  man  who  in 
civilization  is  merely  sullen  and  bad-tem- 
pered becomes  a  murderous,  treacherous  ruf- 
fian when  transplanted  to  the  wilds ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  his  cheery,  quiet  neighbor 
develops  into  a  hero,  ready  uncomplainingly 
to  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friend.  One  who 
in  an  eastern  city  is  merely  a  backbiter  and 
slanderer,  in  the  western  woods  lies  in  wait 

M  See  "  A  Short  History  of  the  English  Col- 
onies in  America,"  by  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  (New 
York,  1886),  for  an  account  of  these  people. 


1 68  THE   II' I. \.\L\G  OF 

for  his  foe  with  a  rifle ;  sharp  practice  in 
the  east  becomes  highway  robbery  in  the 
west;  but  at  the  same  time  negative  good- 
nature becomes  active  self-sacrifice,  and  a 
general  belief  in  virtue  is  translated  into  a 
prompt  and  determined  war  upon  vice.  The 
ne'er-do-well  of  a  family  who  in  one  place 
has  his  debts  paid  a  couple  of  times  and  is 
then  forced  to  resign  from  his  clubs  and  lead 
a  cloudy  but  innocuous  existence  on  a  small 
pension,  in  the  other  abruptly  finishes  his 
career  by  being  hung  for  horse-stealing. 

In  the  backwoods  the  lawless  led  lives  of 
abandoned  wickedness;  they  hated  good  for 
good's  sake,  and  did  their  utmost  to  des- 
troy it.  Where  the  bad  element  was  large, 
gangs  of  horse  thieves,  highwaymen,  and 
other  criminals  often  united  with  the  uncon- 
trollable young  men  of  vicious  tastes  who 
were  given  to  gambling,  fighting,  and  the 
like.  They  then  formed  half-secret  organi- 
zations, often  of  great  extent  and  with  wide- 
ramifications  ;  and  if  they  could  control  a 
community  they  established  a  reign  of  ter- 
ror, driving  out  both  ministers  and  magis- 
trates, and  killing  without  scruple  those  who 
interfered  with  them.  The  good  men  in  such 
a  case  banded  themselves  together  as  regu- 
lators and  put  down  the  wicked  \vith  ruth- 
less severity,  by  the  exercise  of  lynch  law, 
shooting  and  hanging  the  worst  off-hand.155 

"The  regulators  of  backwoods  ^ocioty  corres- 
ponded exactly  to  the  vigilante-,  of  the  western 
border  to-day.  In  many  of  the  cases  of  lynch  law 


THE  WEST  169 

Jails  were  scarce  in  the  wilderness,  and 
often  were  entirely  wanting  in  a  district, 
which,  indeed,  was  quite  likely  to  lack  legal 
officers  also.  If  punishment  was  inflicted  at 
all  it  was  apt  to  be  severe,  and  took  the  form 
of  death  or  whipping.  An  impromptu  jury 
of  neighbors  decided  with  a  rough  and  ready 
sense  of  fair  play  and  justice  what  punish- 
ment the  crime  demanded,  and  then  saw  to 
the  execution  of  their  own  decree.  Whip- 
ping was  the  usual  reward  of  theft.  Occa- 
sionally torture  was  resorted  to,  but  not 
often ;  but  to  their  honor  be  it  said,  the  back- 
woodsmen were  horrified  at  the  treatment 
accorded  both  to  black  slaves  and  to  white 
convict  servants  in  the  lowlands.56 

They  were  superstitious,  of  course,  believ- 
ing in  witchcraft,  and  signs  and  omens ;  and 
it  may  be  noted  that  their  superstition  showed 
a  singular  mixture  of  old-world  survivals 
and  of  practices  borrowed  from  the  savages 
or  evolved  by  the  very  force  of  their  strange 
surroundings.  At  the  bottom  they  were 
deeply  religious  in  their  tendencies ;  and  al- 
though ministers  and  meeting-houses  were 
rare,  yet  the  backwoods  cabins  often  con- 

which  have  come  to  my  knowledge  the  effect  has 
been  healthy  for  the  community ;  but  sometimes 
great  injustice  is  done.  Generally  the  vigilantes, 
by  a  series  of  summary  executions,  do  really  good 
work ;  but  I  have  rarely  known  them  fail,  among 
the  men  whom  they  killed  for  good  reason,  to 
alco  kill  one  or  two  either  by  mistake  or  to  gratify 
private  malice. 
M  See  Doddridge. 


1 7o  THE  WINNING  OF 

tained  Bibles,  and  the  mothers  used  to  instil 
into  the  minds  of  their  children  reverence  for 
Sunday,57  while  many  even  of  the  hunters 
refused  to  hunt  on  that  day.&8  Those  of 
them  who  knew  the  right  honestly  tried  to 
live  up  to  it,  in  spite  of  the  manifold  temp- 
tations to  backsliding  offered  by  their  lives 
of  hard  and  fierce  contention. r'°  But  Cal- 
vinism, though  more  congenial  to  them  than 
Episcopacy,  and  infinitely  more  so  than  Ca- 
tholicism, was  too  cold  for  the  fiery  hearts 
of  the  borderers ;  they  were  not  stirred  to 
the  depths  of  their  natures  till  other  creeds, 
and,  above  all,  Methodism,  worked  their  way 
to  the  wilderness. 

Thus  the  backwoodsmen  lived  on  the  clear- 
ings they  had  hewed  out  of  the  everlasting 
forest;  a  grim,  stern  people,  strong  and  sim- 
ple, powerful  for  good  and  evil,  swayed  by 
gusts  of  stormy  passion,  the  love  of  free- 
dom rooted  in  their  very  hearts'  core.  Their 
lives  were  harsh  and  narrow;  they  gained 
their  bread  by  their  blood  and  sweat,  in  the 
unending  struggle  with  the  wild  ruggcdness 
of  nature.  They  suffered  terrible  injuries  at 
the  hands  of  the  red  men,  and  on  their  foes 
they  waged  a  terrible  warfare  in  return. 

"McAfee  MSS. 

"  Doddridge. 

18  Said  one  old  Indian  fighter,  a  Col.  Joseph 
Brown,  of  Tcnnosee,  with  quaint  truthfulness, 
"  I  have  tried  also  to  he  a  religious  man,  hut  have 
not  always  in  a  life  of  so  much  adventure  and 
strife,  heen  able  to  act  consistently." — South- 
ii'cstcrn  Monthly,  Nashville,  1851,  I.,  80. 


THE   WEST  171 

They  were  relentless,  revengeful,  suspicious, 
knowing  neither  ruth  nor  pity ;  they  were  also 
upright,  resolute,  and  fearless,  loyal  to  their 
friends,  and  devoted  to  their  country.  In 
spite  of  their  many  failings,  they  were  of 
all  men  the  best  fitted  to  conquer  the  wilder- 
ness and  hold  it  against  all  comers. 


CHAPTER  VI 

BOONE  AND  THE  LONG  HUNTERS  J  AND  THEIR 

HUNTING  IN  NO-MAN'S-LAND, 

1769-1774 

THE  American  backwoodsmen  had  surged 
up,  wave  upon  wave,  till  their  mass 
trembled  in  the  troughs  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  ready  to  flood  the  continent  beyond. 
The  people  threatened  by  them  were  dimly 
conscious  of  the  danger  which  as  yet  only 
loomed  in  the  distance.  Far  off,  among 
their  quiet  adobe  villages,  in  the  sun- 
scorched  lands  by  the  Rio  Grande,  the  slow 
Indo-Ibcrian  peons  and  their  monkish 
masters  still  walked  in  the  tranquil  steps  of 
their  fathers,  ignorant  of  the  growth  of  the 
power  that  was  to  overwhelm  their  children 
and  successors ;  but  nearer  by,  Spaniard 
and  Creole  Frenchman,  Algonquin  and  Ap- 
palachian, were  ail  uneasy  as  they  began  to 
feel  the  first  faint  pressure  of  the  American 
advance. 

As  yet  they  had  been  shielded  by  the 
forest  which  lay  over  the  land  like  an  un- 
rent  mantle.  All  through  the  mountains, 
and  far  beyond,  it  stretched  without  a 
break ;  but  towards  the  mouth  of  the  Ken- 

172 


THE  WEST  173 

tucky  and  Cumberland  rivers  the  land- 
scape became  varied  with  open  groves  of 
woodland,  with  flower-strewn  glades  and 
great  barrens  or  prairies  of  long  grass. 
This  region,  one  of  the  fairest  in  the  world, 
was  the  debatable  ground  between  the 
northern  and  the  southern  Indians.  Neither 
dared  dwell  therein,1  but  both  used  it  as 
their  hunting-grounds ;  and  it  was  traversed 
from  end  to  end  by  the  well  marked  war 
traces  2  which  they  followed  when  they  in- 
vaded each  other's  territory.  The  whites, 
on  trying  to  break  through  the  barrier 
which  hemmed  them  in  from  the  western 
lands,  naturally  succeeded  best  when  press- 
ing along  the  line  of  least  resistance;  and 
so  their  first  great  advance  was  made  in  this 
debatable  land,  where  the  uncertainly  de- 
fined hunting-grounds  of  the  Cherokee, 
Creek,  and  Chickasaw  marched  upon  those 
of  Northern  Algonquin  and  Wyandot. 

Unknown  and  unnamed  hunters  and  In- 
dian traders  had  from  time  to  time  pushed 
some  little  way  into  the  wilderness ;  and 
they  had  been  followed  by  others  of  whom 
we  do  indeed  know  the  names,  but  little 

1  This  is  true  as  a  whole;  but  along  the  Mis- 
sissippi, in  the  extreme  west  of  the  present  Ken- 
tucky and  Tennessee,  the  Chickasaws  held  pos- 
session. There  was  a  Shawnee  town  south  of  the 
Ohio,  and  Cherokee  villages  in  .southeastern  Ten- 
nessee. 

1  The  hackwoodsmen  generally  used  "  trace," 
where  western  frontiersmen  would  now  say 
"  trail." 


;74  THE   WIXXIXG  OP 

more.  One  explorer  had  found  and  named 
the  Cumberland  river  and  mountains,  and 
the  great  pass  called  Cumberland  Gap/1 
Others  had  gone  far  beyond  the  utmost 
limits  this  man  had  reached,  and  had 
hunted  in  the  great  bend  of  the  Cumberland 
and  in  the  woodland  region  of  Kentucky, 
famed  amongst  the  Indians  for  the  abund- 
ance of  the  game.4  But  their  accounts  ex- 

'  Dr.  Thomas  Walker,  of  Virginia.  He  named 
them  after  the  Duke  of  Cumberland.  Walker  was 
a  genuine  explorer  and  surveyor,  a  man  of 
mark  as  a  pioneer.  The  journal  of  his  trip 
across  the  Cumberland  to  the  headwaters  of 
the  Kentucky  in  1750  ha-  been  preserved,  ami 
has  just  been  published  by  William  Cabell 
Rives  (Boston:  Little,  Brown  &  Co.).  It  is 
very  interesting,  and  Mr.  Kive->  has  done  a  real 
service  in  publishing  it.  Walker  and  five  com- 
panions were  absent  six  months.  He  found 
traces  of  earlier  wanderers — probably  hunters. 
One  of  his  companion-  wa-  bitten  by  a  bear;  three 
of  the  dogs  were  wounded  by  bears,  and  one  killed 
by  an  elk;  the  hor.-t>  were  frequently  bitten  by 
rattlesnakes;  once  a  bull-buffalo  threatened  the 
whole  party.  They  killed  13  buffaloes,  8  elks, 
53  bears,  jo  deer.  150  turkeys,  and  .some  other 
game. 

'Hunters  and  Itv'ian  traders  visited  portions  of 
Kentucky  and  Tenne-r-ce  years  before  the  country 
became  generally  known  even  <.n  the  bonier. 
(' Xot  to  '-peak  of  the  French,  who  had  long  known 
something  of  the  country,  where  they  had  even 
made  trading  po-N  and  hu;lt  furnaces,  as  sec 
llaywood.  etc.)  We  kn^w  the  name--  of  a  few. 
Those  who  went  down  the  Ohio,  merely  landing 
on  the  Kentucky  shore,  do  not  deserve  mention; 
the  French  had  done  a-  much  for  a  century. 
Whites  who  had  been  captured  by  the  Indians, 


THE  WEST 


175 


cited  no  more  than  a  passing  interest ;  they 
came  and  went  without  comment,  as  lonely 
stragglers  had  come  and  gone  for  nearly  a 
century.  The  hack  woods  civilization  crept 
slowly  westward  without  heing  influenced 
in  its  movements  by  their  explorations.5 

were  sometimes  taken  through  Tennessee  or  Ken- 
tucky, as  John  Sailing  in  1730,  and  Mrs.  Mary 
Inglis  in  1756  (see  "  Trans-Alleghany  Pioneers," 
Collins,  etc.).  In  1654  a  certain  Colonel  Wood 
was  in  Kentucky.  The  next  real  explorer  was 
nearly  a  century  later,  though  Doherty  in  1690, 
and  Adair  in  1730,  traded  with  the  Cherokees  in 
what  is  now  Tennessee.  Walker  struck  the  head- 
water of  the  Kentucky  in  1750;  he  had  been  to 
the  Cumberland  in  1748.  He  made  other  ex- 
ploring trips.  Christopher  Gist  went  up  the  Ken- 
tucky in  1751.  In  1756  and  1758  Forts  Loudon 
and  Chissel  were  built  on  the  Tennessee  head- 
waters, but  were  soon  afterwards  destroyed  by 
the  Cherokees.  In  1761,  '62,  '63,  and  for  a  year 
or  two  afterwards,  a  party  of  hunters  under  the 
lead  of  one  Wallen,  hunted  on  the  western  waters, 
going  continually  farther  west.  In  1765  Croghan 
made  a  sketch  of  the  Ohio  River.  In  1766  James 
Smith  and  others  explored  Tennessee.  S toner, 
Harrod.  and  Lindsay,  and  a  party  from  South 
Carolina  were  near  the  present  site  of  Nashville 
in  1767;  in  the  same  year  John  Finley  and  others 
were  in  Kentucky;  and  it  was  Finley  who  first 
told  TCoone  about  it  and  led  him  thither. 

5  The  attempt  to  find  out  the  names  of  the  men 
who  first  saw  the  different  portions  of  the  west- 
ern country  is  not  very  profitable.  The  first  vis- 
itors were  hunters,  simply  wandering  in  search 
of  game,  not  with  any  settled  purpose  of  explora- 
tion. Who  the  individual  first-comers  were,  has 
generally  been  forgotten.  At  the  most  it  is  only 
possible  to  find  out  the  name  of  some  one  of  sev- 
eral who  went  to  a  given  locality.  The  hunters 


i?6  THE   W1NNIXG  OF 

Finally,  however,  among  these  hunters  one 
arose  whose  wanderings  were  to  bear  fruit ; 
who  was  destined  to  lead  through  the  wil- 
derness the  first  body  of  settlers  that  ever 
established  a  community  in  the  far  west, 
completely  cut  off  from  the  seaboard  col- 
onies. This  was  Daniel  P>oone.  lie  \\a.s 
born  in  Pennsylvania  in  1734,"  but  when 
only  a  boy  had  been  brought  with  the  rest 
of  his  family  to  the  banks  of  the  Yadkin 
in  North  Carolina.  Here  he  grew  up,  and 
as  soon  as  he  came  of  age  he  married,  built 
a  log  hut,  and  made  a  clearing,  wrhereon  to 
farm  like  the  rest  of  his  backwoods  neigh- 
bors. Thev  all  tilled  their  own  clearings, 
guiding  the  plow  among  the  charred  stumps 
left  when  the  trees  were  chopped  down 
and  the  land  burned  over,  and  they  were  all, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  hunters.  \Yith  Boone 
hunting  and  exploration  were  passions,  and 
the  lonely  life  of  the  wilderness,  with  its 
bold,  wild  freedom,  the  only  existence  for 
which  he  really  cared.  He  was  a  tall,  spare, 
sinewy  man,  with  eyes  like  an  eagle's,  and 

were  wandering  everywhere.  By  chance  some 
went  to  places  \ve  no\v  consider  imp*  irtant.  By 
chance  the  name-  of  a  le\v  "f  the-c  have  been 
preserved.  But  the  cred.it  he!nng<  to  the  whole 
backwoods  race,  not  to  the  individual  backwoods- 
man. 

8  August  22.  1/34  (according  to  Tames  Parton, 
in  h;s  sketch  of  Bonne).  Hi-  grandfather  was  an 
English  immigrant:  his  fatlvr  had  married  a 
Quakeress.  When  he  lived  on  the  banks  of  the 
Delaware,  t1!;  O'lin'rv  was  -till  a  wilderness.  He 
war-  IM.IH  m  Berks  Co. 


THE  WEST  177 

muscles  that  never  tired ;  the  toil  and  hard- 
ship of  his  life  made  no  impress  on  his 
iron  frame,  unhurt  by  intemperance  of  any 
kind,  and  he  lived  for  eighty-six  years,  a 
backwoods  hunter  to  the  end  of  his  days. 
His  thoughtful,  quiet,  pleasant  face,  so  of- 
ten portrayed,  is  familiar  to  every  one ;  it 
was  the  face  of  a  man  who  never  blustered 
or  bullied,  who  would  neither  inflict  nor 
suffer  any  wrong,  and  who  had  a  limitless 
fund  of  fortitude,  endurance,  and  indom- 
itable resolution  upon  which  to  draw  when 
fortune  proved  adverse.  His  self-com- 
mand and  patience,  his  daring,  restless  love 
of  adventure,  and,  in  time  of  danger,  his 
absolute  trust  in  his  own  powers  and  re- 
sources, all  combined  to  render  him  pecu- 
liarly fitted  to  follow  the  career  of  which  he 
was  so  fond. 

Boone  hunted  on  the  western  waters  at  an 
early  date.  In  the  valley  of  Boone's  Creek, 
a  tributary  of  the  Watauga,  there  is  a  beech 
tree  still  standing,  on  which  can  be  faintly 
traced  an  inscription  setting  forth  that  "  D. 
Boone  cilled  a  bar  on  (this)  tree  in  the  year 
1760."  7  On  the  expeditions  of  which  this 

7  The  inscription  is  first  mentioned  by  Ramsey, 
p.  67.  See  Appendix  C,  for  a  letter  from  the 
Hon.  John  Allison,  at  present  (1888)  Secretary 
of  State  for  Tennessee,  which  goes  to  prove  that 
the  inscription  has  been  on  the  tree  as  long  as 
the  district  has  been  settled.  Of  course  it  cannot 
be  proved  that  the  inscription  is  by  Boone;  but 
there  is  much  reason  for  supposing  that  such  is 
the  case,  and  little  for  doubting  it. 


178  THE   WEST 

is  the  earliest  record  he  was  partly  hunting 
on  his  own  account,  and  partly  exploring 
on  behalf  of  another,  Richard  Henderson. 
Henderson  was  a  prominent  citizen  of 
North  Carolina,8  a  speculative  man  of  great 
ambition  and  energy.  He  stood  high  in 
the  colony,  was  extravagant  and  fond  of 
display,  and  his  fortune  being  jeopardized 
he  hoped  to  more  than  retrieve  it  by  going 
into  speculations  in  western  lands  on  an  un- 
heard of  scale ;  for  he  intended  to  try  to 
establish  on  his  own  account  a  great  pro- 
prietary colony  beyond  the  mountains.  He 
had  great  confidence  in  I'.oone  ;  and  it  was 
his  backing  which  enabled  the  latter  to  turn 
his  discoveries  to  such  good  account. 

Boone's  claim  to  distinction  rusts  not  so 
much  on  his  wide  wanderings  in  unknown 
lands,  for  in  this  respect  he  did  little  more 
than  was  done  by  a  hundred  other  back- 
woods hunters  of  his  generation,  but  on 
the  fact  that  he  was  able  to  turn  his  daring 
woodcraft  to  the  advantage  of  his  fellows. 
As  he  himself  said,  he  was  an  instrument 
"  ordained  of  ( lod  to  settle  the  wilderness." 
lie  inspired  confidence  in  all  who  met  him,n 
so  that  the  men  of  means  and  influence 

8  lie  was  by  birth  a  Virginian,  of  mixed  Scotch 
and  \Vel.>h  de-cent.  See  Collins,  II.,  336;  also 
Ramsey.  For  Room-'-;  early  connection  with  Hen- 
derson, in  1/64.  -ee  Haywood,  35. 

"  Kven  anumfT  hi-  foe« ;  he  i-  almost  the  only 
American  praised  by  Lt.-Gov.  Henry  Hamilton  of 
Detroit,  for  instance  (see  Royal  Gazette,  July  15, 
1780). 


THE  WEST 


179 


were  willing  to  trust  adventurous  enter- 
prises to  his  care ;  and  his  success  as  an  ex- 
plorer, his  skill  as  a  hunter,  and  his  prowess 
as  an  Indian  fighter,  enabled  him  to  bring 
these  enterprises  to  a  successful  conclusion, 
and  in  some  degree  to  control  the  wild 
spirits  associated  with  him. 

Boone's  expeditions  into  the  edges  of  the 
wilderness  whetted  his  appetite  for  the  un- 
known. He  had  heard  of  great  hunting- 
grounds  in  the  far  interior  from  a  stray 
hunter  and  Indian  trader,10  who  had  him- 
self seen  them,  and  on  May  I,  1769,  he  left 
his  home  on  the  Yadkin  "  to  wander 
through  the  wilderness  of  America  in  quest 
of  the  country  of  Kentucky."  n  He  was 
accompanied  by  five  other  men,  including 
his  informant,  and  struck  out  towards  the 
northwest,  through  the  tangled  mass  of 
rugged  mountains  and  gloomy  forests. 
During  five  weeks  of  severe  toil  the  little 
band  journeyed  through  vast  solitudes, 
whose  utter  loneliness  can  with  difficulty  be 
understood  by  those  who  have  not  themselves 

10  John  Finley. 

11  "  The  Adventures  of  Colonel   Daniel   Boone, 
formerly  a  hunter  '' ;  nominally  written  by  Boone 
himself,   in    1784,   but   in   reality  by  John    Filson, 
the    first    Kentucky    historian, — a    man    who    did 
history  good  service,  albeit  a  true  sample  of  the 
small  hedge-school  pedant.    The  old  pioneer's  own 
language   would   have   been    far   better   than    that 
v.hich  Fiison  used;  for  the  latter's  composition  is 
a  travesty  of  Johnsonese   in   its   most  aggravated 
form.    For  Filson  see  Durrett's  admirable  "  Life  " 
in  the  Filson  Club  Publications. 


i  So  THE  iriXXIXC  OF 

dwelt  and  hunted  in  primaeval  mountain  for- 
ests. Then,  early  in  June,  the  adventurers 
broke  through  the  interminable  wastes  of  dim 
woodland,  and  stood  on  the  threshold  of 
the  beautiful  blue-grass  region  of  Ken- 
tucky ;  a  land  of  running  waters,  of  groves 
and  glades,  of  prairies,  cane-brakes,  and 
stretches  of  lofty  forest.  It  was  teeming 
with  game.  The  shaggy-maned  herds  of 
unwieklly  buffalo — the  bison  as  they  should 
be  called — had  beaten  out  broad  roads 
through  the  forest,  and  had  furrowed  the 
prairies  with  trails  along  which  they  had 
travelled  for  countless  generations.  The 
round-horned  elk,  with  spreading,  massive 
antlers,  the  lordliest  of  the  deer  tribe 
throughout  the  world,  abounded,  and  like 
the  buffalo  travelled  in  bands  not  only 
through  the  woods  but  also  across  the 
reaches  of  waving  grass  land.  The  deer 
were  extraordinarily  numerous,  and  so 
were  bears,  while  wolves  and  panthers  were 
plentiful.  Wherever  there  was  a  salt 
spring  the  country  was  fairlv  thronged  with 
wild  beasts  of  many  kinds.  For  six  months 
Boone  and  his  companions  enjoyed  such 
hunting  as  had  hardly  fallen  to  men  of  their 
race  since  the  Germans  came  out  of  the 
Hercynian  forest.1-' 

"The   Nieblung  Lied   tells  of   Siegfried's  feats 
with  hear,  buffalo,  elk,  wolf,  and  deer: 

"  Danach    schlug    er    wieder    cinen    Buffel 
und  einen  Elk 


THE   WEST  181 

In  December,  however,  they  were  at- 
tacked by  Indians.  Boone  and  a  companion 
were  captured ;  and  when  they  escaped  they 
found  their  camp  broken  up,  and  the  rest 
of  the  party  scattered  and  gone  home. 
About  this  time  they  were  joined  by  Squire 
Boone,  the  brother  of  the  great  hunter,  and 
himself  a  woodsman  of  but  little  less  skill, 
together  with  another  adventurer;  the  two 
had  travelled  through  the  immense  wilder- 
ness, partly  to  explore  it  and  partly  with  the 
hope  of  finding  the  original  adventurers, 
which  they  finally  succeeded,  in  doing  more  by 
good  luck  than  design.  Soon  afterwards 
Boone's  companion  in  his  first  short  captiv- 
ity was  again  surprised  by  the  Indians,  and 

Vier  starkes  Auer  nieder  und  einen  grim- 
men  Schelk, 

So  schnell  trug  ihn  die  Mahre,  dasz  ihm 
nichts  entsprang ; 

Hinden  und  Hirsche  wurden  viele  sein 
Fang. 

ein  Waldthier  fiirch- 

terlich  , 

Einen  wilden  Baren." 

Siegfried's  elk  was  our  moose;  and  like  the 
American  frontiersmen  of  to-day,  the  old  German 
singer  calls  the  Wisent  or  Bison  a  buffalo — Eu- 
ropean sportsmen  now  committing  an  equally  bad 
blunder  by  giving  it  the  name  of  the  extinct 
aurochs.  Be  it  observed  also  that  the  hard  fight- 
ing, hard  drinking,  boastful  hero  of  Nieblung 
fame  used  a  "  spur  bund,"  just  as  his  representa- 
tive of  Kentucky  or  Tennessee  used  a  track  hound 
a  thousand  years  later. 


1 82  THE   ll-'LVXIXG  OF 

this  time  was  slain 13 — the  first  of  the 
thousands  of  human  beings  with  whose 

life-blood  Kentucky  was  bought.  The  at- 
tack was  entirely  unprovoked.  The  In- 
dians had  wantonly  shed  the  first  blood. 
The  land  belonged  to  no  one  tribe,  but  was 
hunted  over  by  all,  each  feeling  jealous  of 
every  other  intruder;  tlu-y  attacked  the 
whites,  not  because  the  whites  had  wronged 
them,  but  because  their  invariable  policy 
was  to  kill  anv  strangers  on  any  grounds 
over  which  they  themselves  ever  hunted, 
no  matter  what  man  had  the  best  right 
thereto.  The  Kentucky  hunters  were 
promptly  taught  that  in  thi>  no-man's-land, 
teeming  with  game  and  lacking  even  a  soli- 
tary human  habitation,  every  Indian  must 
be  regarded  as  a  foe. 

The  man  who  had  accompanied  Squire 
Bonne  was  terrified  bv  the  presence  of  the 
Indians,  and  now  returned  to  the  settle- 
ments. The  two  brothers  remained  alone 
on  their  hunting-grounds  throughout  the 
winter,  living  in  a  little  cabin.  About  the 
first  of  May  Squire  set  off  alone  to  the  set- 
tlements to  procure  burses  and  ammunition. 
For  three  month-  Daniel  I'.oone  remained 
absolutely  alone  in  the  wilderness,  without 
salt,  sugar,  or  il"ur.  and  without  the  com- 
panionship of  so  much  as  a  horse  or  a 
dog.14  I'.ut  the  solitude-loving  hunter. 

1S  His  name  was  John   Stewart. 
14  His  remaining  absolutely  alone  in  the  wilder- 
ness for  such  a  length  of  time  is  often  spoken  of 


THE  WEST  183 

dauntless  and  self-reliant,  enjoyed  to  the 

full  his  wild,  lonely  life ;  he  passed  his  days 
hunting  and  exploring,  wandering  hither 
and  thither  over  the  country,  while  at  night 
he  lay  off  in  the  canebrakes  or  thickets, 
without  a  fire,  so  as  not  to  attract  the  In- 
dians. Of  the  latter  he  saw  many  signs, 
and  they  sometimes  came  to  his  camp,  hut 
his  sleepless  wariness  enabled  him  to  avoid 
capture. 

Late  in  July  his  brother  returned,  and 
met  him  according  to  appointment  at  the 
old  camp.  Other  hunters  also  now  came 
into  the  Kentucky  wilderness,  and  Boone 
joined  a  small  party  of  them  for  a  short 
time.  Such  a  party  of  hunters  is  always 
glad  to  have  any  thing  wherewith  to  break 
the  irksome  monotony  of  the  long  evenings 
passed  round  the  camp  fire ;  and  a  book  or 
a  greasy  pack  of  cards  was  as  welcome  in 
a  camp  of  Kentucky  riflemen  in  1770  as  it  is 
to  a  party  of  Rocky  Mountain  hunters  in 

with  wonder;  but  here  again  Boone  stands  merely 
as  the  backwoods  type,  not  as  an  exception.  To 
this  day  many  hunters  in  the  Rockies  do  the  same. 
In  1880,  two  men  whom  I  knew  wintered  to  the 
west  of  the  Bighorns,  150  miles  from  any  human 
beings.  They  had  salt  and  flour,  however;  but 
they  were  nine  months  without  seeing  a  white 
fare.  They  killed  elk,  buffalo,  and  a  moose;  and 
had  a  narrow  escape  from  a  small  Indian  war 
party.  T.ast  winter  C 1887-88)  an  old  trapper,  a 
friend  of  mine  in  the  days  when  he  hunted  buffalo, 
spent  five  months  entirely  alone  in  the  mountains 
north  of  the  Flathead  country. 


1 84  THE   If IX. \I.\G  OF 

1888.  Boone  has  recorded  in  his  own  quaint 
phraseology  an  incident  of  his  life  during 
this  summer,  which  shows  how  eagerly 
such  a  little  band  of  frontiersmen  read  a 
book,  and  how  real  its  characters  became 
to  their  minds.  lie  was  encamped  with  five 
other  men  on  Red  River,  and  they  had  with 
them  for  their  "  amusement  the  history  of 
Samuel  Gulliver's  travels,  wherein  he  gave 
an  account  of  his  young  master.  Gluinde- 
lick,  carcing  [sic]  him  on  a  market  day  for 
a  show  to  a  town  called  Lulbegrud."  In 
the  party  who,  amid  such  strange  surround- 
ings, read  and  listened  to  Dean  Swift's 
writings  was  a  young  man  named  Alexan- 
der Xeelv.  One  night  he  came  into  camp 
with  two  Indian  scalps,  taken  from  a 
Shawnese  village  he  had  found  on  a  creek 
running  into  the  river;  and  he  announced 
to  the  circle  of  grim  wildernes-  veterans 
that  "  he  had  been  that  day  to  Lulbegrud, 
and  had  killed  two  Brobdignags  in  their 
capital."  To  this  day  the  creek  by  which 
the  two  luckless  Shawnces  lost  their  lives 
is  known  as  Lulbegrud  Creek.18 

"Deposition  of  D;,n:>l  Rur.nr.  September  15. 
i7</>.  Certified  ropy  fY"in  D'-po-it'-m  B/>nk  \n. 
r.  pape  I'fi.  Clarke  Crmn»v  d-urt.  Ky.  Fir-f  pub- 
lished by  Col.  John  Ma-oti  Br-.'.vn.  in  "Battle  of 
the  Blue  I. irks."  p.  40  ( Frankfort.  iR,«2V  The 
book  \vbirb  the-e  nb!  hunter-  read  aroutv!  »hr'ir 
canip-fire  in  tlv  Indian-ha'intfd  primrrvnl  f"re;t 
a  century  and  a  quarter  ae>  >  ha^  by  preat  pood- 
luck  been  preserved,  and  i^  in  Col.  Durrett's 
libran.-  at  Louisville.  It  is  entitled  the  "  Works 


THE  WEST  185 

Soon  after  this  encounter  the  increasing 
danger  from  the  Indians  drove  Boone  back 
to  the  valley  of  the  Cumberland  River,  and 
in  the  spring  of  1771  he  returned  to  his 
home  on  the  Yadkin. 

A  couple  of  years  before  Boone  went  to 
Kentucky,  Steiner,  or  Stoner,  and  Harrod. 
two  hunters  from  Pittsburg,  who  had 
passed  through  the  Illinois,  came  down  to 
hunt  in  the  bend  of  the  Cumberland,  where 
Nashville  now  stands ;  they  found  vast 
numbers  of  buffalo,  and  killed  a  great 
many,  especially  around  the  licks,  where 
the  huge  clumsy  beasts  had  fairly  destroyed 
most  of  the  forest,  treading  down  the  young 
trees  and  bushes  till  the  ground  was  left 
bare  or  covered  with  a  rich  growth  of 
clover.  The  bottoms  and  the  hollows  be- 
tween  the  hills  were  thickset  with  cane. 
Sycamore  grew  in  the  low  ground,  and  to- 
wards the  Mississippi  were  to  be  found  the 
persimmon  and  cottonwood.  Sometimes 
the  forest  was  open  and  composed  of  huge 

of  Dr.  Jonathan  Swift,  London,  MDCCLXV," 
and  is  in  two  small  volumes.  On  the  title-page 
is  written  "A.  Neelly,  1770." 

Frontiersmen  are  often  content  with  the  merest 
printed  trash ;  but  the  better  men  among  them 
appreciate  really  good  literature  quite  as  much  as 
any  other  class  of  people.  In  the  long  winter 
evenings  they  study  to  good  purpose  books  as 
varied  as  Dante,  Josephus,  Macaulay.  Longfellow, 
Partori's  "  Life  of  Jackson,"  and  the  Rollo  stories 
— to  mention  only  volumes  that  have  been  es- 
pecial favorites  with  my  own  cowboys  and  hun- 
ters. 


1 86  THE   IVINNIXG  OF 

trees ;  elsewhere  it  was  of  thicker,  smaller 
growth.16  Everywhere  game  abounded, 
and  it  was  nowhere  very  wary. 

Other  hunters  of  whom  we  know  even 
the  names  of  only  a  few,  had  been  through 
many  parts  of  the  wilderness  before  Boone, 
and  earlier  still  Frenchmen  had  built  forts 
and  smelting  furnaces  on  the  Cumberland, 
the  Tennessee,  and  the  head  tributaries  of 
the  Kentucky.17  Boone  is  interesting  as  a 
leader  and  explorer ;  but  he  is  still  more 
interesting  as  a  type.  The  west  was  neither 
discovered,  won,  nor  settled  by  any  single 
man.  No  keen-eyed  statesman  planned  the 
movement,  nor  was  it  carried  out  by  any 
great  military  leader ;  it  was  the  work  of  a 
whole  people,  of  whom  each  man  was  im- 
pelled mainly  by  sheer  love  of  adventure; 
it  was  the  outcome  of  the  ceaseless  striv- 
ings of  all  the  dauntless,  restless  backwoods 
follc  to  win  homes  for  their  descendants 
and  to  each  penetrate  deeper  than  his  neigh- 
bors into  the  remote  forest  hunting-grounds 
where  the  perilous  pleasures  of  the  chase  and 
of  war  could  be  best  enjoyed.  \Ye  owe  the 
conquest  of  the  west  to  all  the  backwoodsmen, 
not  to  any  solitary  individual  among  them ; 
where  all  alike  were  strong  and  daring 

lfl  MS.  diary  of  Benj.  Hawkins,  170/1.  Preserved 
in  Xa^h.  Historical  Snr.  Tn  1/96  buffalo  were 
scarce;  hut  some  fresh  signs  of  them  were  still 
seen  at  licks. 

17  TTaywood,  p.  75.  etc.  It  is  a  waste  of  time  to 
quarrel  over  who  first  discovered  a  particular 
tract  of  this  wilderness.  A  great  many  hunters 


THE  WEST  187 

there  was  no  chance  for  any  single  man  to 
rise  to  unquestioned  preeminence. 

In  the  summer  of  1769  a  large  band  of 
hunters  1S  crossed  the  mountains  to  make  a 
long  hunt  in  the  western  wilderness,  the 
men  clad  in  hunting-shirts,  moccasins,  and 
leggings,  with  traps,  rifles,  and  dogs,  and 
each  bringing  with  him  two  or  three  horses. 
They  made  their  way  over  the  mountains, 
forded  or  swam  the  rapid,  timber-choked 
streams,  and  went  down  the  Cumberland, 
till  at  last  they  broke  out  of  the  forest  and 
came  upon  great  barrens  of  tall  grass.  One 
of  their  number  was  killed  by  a  small  party 
of  Indians  ;  but  they  saw  no  signs  of  human 
habitations.  Yet  they  came  across  mounds 
and  graves  and  other  remains  of  an  ancient 
people  who  had  once  lived  in  the  land,  but 
had  died  out  of  it  long  ages  before  the  in- 
coming of  the  white  men.19 

traversed  different  parts  at  different  times,  from 
1760  on,  each  practically  exploring  on  his  own 
account.  We  do  not  know  the  names  of  most  of 
them ;  those  we  do  know  are  only  worth  pre- 
serving in  county  histories  and  the  like ;  the 
credit  belongs  to  the  race,  not  the  individual. 

18  From    twenty   to    forty.      Compare    Haywood 
and  Marshall,  both  of  whom  are  speaking  of  the 
same  bodies  of  men ;   Ramsey  makes  the  mistake 
of  supposing  they  are  speaking  of  different  parties; 
Haywood   dwells   on  the   feats   of  those  who  de- 
scended the  Cumberland;  Marshall  of  those  who 
went  to  Kentucky. 

19  The  so-called  mound  builders;  now  generally 
considered  to  have  been   simply  the  ancestors  of 
the  present  Indian  races. 

8-7 


i88  THE  WINNING  OF 

The  hunters  made  a  permanent  camp  in 
one  place,  and  returned  to  it  at  intervals 
to  deposit  their  skins  and  peltries,  Be- 
tween times  they  scattered  out  singly  or  in 
small  bands.  They  hunted  all  through  the 
year,  killing  vast  quantities  of  every  kind 
of  game.  Most  of  it  they  got  by  fair  still- 
hunting,  but  some  by  methods  we  do  not 
now  consider  legitimate,  such  as  calling  up 
a  doe  by  imitating  the  bleat  of  a  fawn,  and 
shooting  deer  from  a  scaffold  when  they 
came  to  the  salt  licks  at  night.  Neverthe- 
less, most  of  the  hunters  did  not  approve  of 
"crusting"  the  game — that  is,  of  running 
it  down  on  snow-shoes  in  the  deep  mid- 
winter snows. 

At  the  end  of  the  year  some  of  the  adven- 
turers returned  home ;  others  20  went  north 
into  the  Kentucky  country,  where  they 
hunted  for  several  months  before  recross- 
ing  the  mountains;  while  the  remainder, 
\-'\  by  an  old  hunter  named  Kasper  Man- 
sker,21  built  two  boats  and  hollowed  out  of 
logs  two  pirogues  or  dugouts — clumsier  but 
tougher  craft  than  the  light  birch-bark 
canoes — and  started  down  the  Cumberland. 
At  the  French  Lick,  where  Nashville  now 
stands,  they  saw  enormous  quantities  of 
buffalo,  elk,  and  other  game,  more  than 
they  had  ever  seen  before  in  any  one  place. 

10  T.ed  by  one  James  Knox 

"  Tlis  real  name  was  Kasper  Mansker,  as  his 
Menaliire  shows,  but  he  was  always  spoken  of  as 
Mansco. 


THE  WEST  189 

Some  of  their  goods  were  taken  by  a  party 
of  Indians  they  met,  but  some  French  tra- 
ders whom  they  likewise  encountered, 
treated  them  well  and  gave  them  salt,  flour, 
tobacco,  and  taffia,  the  last  being  especially 
prized,  as  they  had  had  no  spirits  for  a  year. 
They  went  down  to  Natchez,  sold  their 
furs,  hides,  oil,  and  tallow,  and  some,  re- 
turned by  sea,  while  others,  including 
Mansker,  came  overland  with  a  drove  of 
horses  that  was  being  taken  through  the 
Indian  nations  to  Georgia.  From  the 
length  of  time  all  these  men,  as  well  as 
Boone  and  his  companions,  were  absent,  they 
were  known  as  the  Long  Hunters,  and  the 
fame  of  their  hunting  and  exploring  spread 
all  along  the  border  and  greatly  excited 
the  young  men.22 

In  1771  many  hunters  crossed  over  the 
mountains  and  penetrated  far  into  the 
wilderness,  to  work  huge  havoc  among  the 
herds  of  game.  Some  of  them  came  in 
bands,  and  others  singly,  and  many  of  the 
mountains,  lakes,  rivers,  and  creeks  of  Ten- 
nessee are  either  called  after  the  leaders 
among  these  old  hunters  and  wanderers,  or 
else  by  their  names  perpetuate  the  memory 
of  some  incident  of  their  hunting  trips.23 

"McAfee  MSS.  _("  Autobiography  of  Robt. 
McAfee").  Sometimes  the  term  Long  Hunters 
was  used  as  including  Roonc,  Finley,  and  their 
companions,  sometimes  not :  in  the  McAfee  MSS. 
it  is  explicitly  used  in  the  former  sense. 

23  See  Haywood  for  Clinch  River,  Drake's  Pond, 
Mansco's  Lick,  Greasy  Rock,  etc.,  etc. 


1 9o  THE  U'lXXIXG  OP 

Mansker  himself  came  back,  a  leader 
among  his  comrades,  and  hunted  many 
years  in  the  woods  alone  or  with  others  of 
his  kind,  and  saw  and  did  many  strange 
things.  One  winter  he  and  those  who  were 
with  him  huilt  a  skin  house  from  the  hides 
of  game,  and  when  their  ammunition  gave 
out  they  left  three  of  their  number  and  all 
of  their  dogs  at  the  skin  house  and  went  to 
the  settlements  for  powder  and  lead.  When 
they  returned  they  found  that  two  of  the  men 
had  been  killed  and  the  other  chased  away 
by  the  Indians,  who,  however,  had  not 
found  the  camp.  The  dogs,  having  seen 
no  human  face  for  three  months,  were  very 
wild,  yet  in  a  few  days  became  as  tame 
and  well  trained  as  ever.  They  killed  such 
enormous  quantities  of  buffalo,  elk,  and 
especially  deer,  that  they  could  not  pack  the 
hides  into  camp,  and  one  of  the  party,  dur- 
ing an  idle  moment  and  in  a  spirit  of  pro- 
test against  fate,"4  carved  on  the  peeled 
trunk  of  a  fallen  poplar,  where  it  long  re- 
mained, the  sentence :  "  2  wo  deer  skins 
lost ;  ruination  by  God  !  "  The  soul  of  this 
thriftv  hunter  must  have  been  further 
grieved  when  a  partv  of  Chcrokees  visited 
their  camp  and  took  away  all  the  camp 
utensils  and  five  hundred  hides.  The 
whites  found  the  broad  track  thev  made  in 
coming  in,  but  could  not  find  where  they 
had  gone  out,  each  wilv  redskin  then  cover- 

14  A  hunter  named  Bledioe;  Collins,  II.,  418. 


THE  WEST  191 

ing  his  own  trail,  and  the  whole  number 
apparently  breaking  up  into  several  parties. 
Sometimes  the  Indians  not  only  plundered 
the  hunting  camps  but  killed  the  hunters  as 
well,    and    the    hunters    retaliated    in    kind. 
Often  the  white  men  and  red  fought  one 
another  whenever  they  met,  and  displayed 
in  their  conflicts  all  the  cunning  and  merci- 
less   ferocity   that   made   forest   warfare   so 
dreadful.     Terrible  deeds  of  prowess  were 
done  by  the  mighty  men  on  either  side.     It 
wras  a  war  of  stealth  and  cruelty,  and  cease- 
less,   sleepless    watchfulness.     The    contest- 
ants   had    sinewy    frames    and    iron    wills, 
keen  eyes  and  steady  hands,  hearts  as  bold 
as  they  were  ruthless.     Their  moccasined 
feet  made  no  sound  as  they  stole  softly  on 
the  camp  of  a  sleeping  enemy  or  crept  to 
ambush  him  while  he  himself  still-hunted 
or  waylaid  the  deer.     A  favorite  stratagem 
was  to  imitate  the  call  of  game,  especially 
the  gobble  of  the  wild  turkey,  and  thus  to 
lure  the  would-be  hunter  to  his  fate.    If  the 
deceit  was  guessed  at,  the  caller  was  him- 
self stalked.     The  men  grew  wonderfully 
expert    in    detecting    imitation.      One    old 
hunter,   Castlcman  by  name,  was  in  after 
years    fond   of   describing   how   an    Indian 
nearly  lured  him  to  his  death.    It  was  in  the 
dusk   of   the   evening,    when    he    heard    the 
cries   of  two   great   wood   owls   near   him. 
Listening  attentively,  he  became  convinced 
that  all  was  not  right.     "  The  woo-woo  call 
and   the    woo-woo   answer   were   not   well 


192 


THE   nV.YA7.YG  OF 


timed  and  toned.,  and  the  babel-chatter  was 
a  failure.  More  than  this,  they  seemed  to 
be  on  the  ground."  Creeping  cautiously 
up,  and  peering  through  the  brush,  he  saw 
something  the  height  of  a  stump  between 
two  forked  trees.  It  did  not  look  natural ; 
he  aimed,  pulled  trigger,  and  killed  an 
Indian. 

Each  party  of  Indians  or  whites  was  ever 
on  the  watch  to  guard  against  danger  or  to 
get  the  chance  of  taking  vengeance  for 
former  wrongs.  The  dark  woods  saw  a 
myriad  lonely  fights  where  red  warrior  or 
white  hunter  fell  and  no  friend  of  the  fallen 
ever  knew  his  fate,  where  his  sole  memorial 
was  the  scalp  that  hung  in  the  smoky  cabin 
or  squalid  wigwam  of  the  victor. 

The  rude  and  fragmentary  annals  of  the 
frontier  are  filled  with  the  deeds  of  men,  of 
whom  Mansker  can  IK-  taken  as  a  type.  lie 
was  a  wonderftil  marksman  and  woods- 
man, and  was  afterwards  made  a  colonel  of 
the  frontier  militia,  though,  being  of  Ger- 
man descent,  he  spoke  only  broken  Eng- 
lish.25 Like  most  of  the  hunters  he  became 
specially  proud  of  his  rifle,  calling  it 
"  Xancv  "  ;  for  they  were  vcrv  apt  to  know 
each  his  favorite  weapon  by  some  homely 
or  endearing  nickname.  Every  forest  sight 
or  sound  was  familiar  to  him.  lie  knew 
the  cries  of  the  birds  and  beasts  so  well  that 
no  imitation  could  deceive  him.  Once  he 

"  Carr's  "Early  Times  in  Middle  Tennessee," 
PP.  52,  54,  56,  etc. 


THE  WEST  193 

was  nearly  taken  in  by  an  unusually  per- 
fect imitation  of  a  wild  gobbler;  but  he 
finally  became  suspicious,  and  "  placed " 
his  adversary  behind  a  large  tree.  Having 
perfect  confidence  in  his  rifle,  and  knowing 
that  the  Indians  rarely  fired  except  at  close 
range — partly  because  they  were  poor  shots, 
partly  because  they  loaded  their  guns  too 
lightly — he  made  no  attempt  to  hide. 
Feigning  to  pass  to  the  Indian's  right,  the 
latter,  as  he  expected,  tried  to  follow  him; 
reaching  an  opening  in  a  glade,  Mansker 
suddenly  wheeled  and  killed  his  foe.  When 
hunting  he  made  his  home  sometimes  in  a 
hollow  tree,  sometimes  in  a  hut  of  buffalo 
hides ;  for  the  buffalo  were  so  plenty  that 
once  when  a  lick  was  discovered  by  himself 
and  a  companion,26  the  latter,  though  on 
horseback,  was  nearly  trampled  to  death 
by  the  mad  rush  of  a  herd  they  surprised 
and  stampeded. 

He  was  a  famous  Indian  fighter ;  one  of 
the  earliest  of  his  recorded  deeds  has  to  do 
with  an  Indian  adventure.  He  and  three 
other  men  were  trapping  on  Sulphur  Fork 
and  Red  River,  in  the  great  bend  of  the 
Cumberland.  Moving  their  camp,  they 
came  on  recent  traces  of  Indians :  deer- 
carcases  and  wicker  frames  for  stretching 
hides.  They  feared  to  tarry  longer  unless 
they  knew  something  of  their  foes,  and 
Mansker  set  forth  to  explore,  and  turned 

19  The  hunter  Bledsoe  mentioned  in  a  previous 
note. 


i94 


THE   WINNING  OF 


towards  Red  River,  where,  from  the  sign, 
he  thought  to  find  the  camp.  Travelling 
some  twenty  miles,  he  perceived  by  the 
sycamore  trees  in  view  that  he  was  near  the 
river.  Advancing  a  few  steps  farther  he 
suddenly  found  himself  within  eighty  or 
ninety  yards  of  the  camp.  He  instantly 
slipped  behind  a  tree  to  watch.  There  were 
only  two  Indians  in  camp;  the  rest  he  sup- 
posed were  hunting  at  a  distance.  Just  as 
lie  was  about  to  retire,  one  of  the  Indians 
took  up  a  tomakawk  and  strolled  off  in  the 
opposite  direction;  while  the  other  picked 
up  his  gun,  put  it  on  his  shoulder,  and 
walked  directly  towards  Mansker's  hiding- 
place'.  Mansker  lay  close,  hoping  that  he 
would  not  be  noticed;  but  the  Indian  ad- 
vanced directly  towards  him  until  not 
fifteen  paces  off.  There  being  no  alterna- 
tive, Mansker  cocked  his  piece,  and  shot  the 
Indian  through  the  body.  The  Indian 
screamed,  threw  flown  his  gun,  and  ran  to- 
wards camp;  passing  it  he  pitched  headlong 
down  the  bluff,  dead,  into  the  river.  The 
other  likewise  ran  to  camp  at  the  sound  of 
the  shot  ;  but  Mansker  outran  him,  reached 
the  cani]>  first,  and  picked  up  an  old  gun 
that  was  on  the  ground  ;  but  the  gun  would 
not  go  off.  and  the  Indian  turned  and  es- 
caped. Mansker  broke  the  old  gun.  and  re- 
turned speedily  to  his  comrades.  The  next 
day  they  all  went  to  the  spot,  where  they 
found  tin'  dead  Indian  and  took  away  his 
tomahawk,  knife,  and  bullet-bag;  but  they 


THE  WEST  195 

never  found  his  gun.  The  other  Indian 
had  come  back,  had  loaded  his  horses  with 
furs,  and  was  gone.  They  followed  him 
all  that  day  and  all  night  with  a  torch 
of  dry  cane,  and  could  never  overtake  him. 
Finding  that  there  were  other  bands  of  In- 
dians about,  they  then  left  their  hunting 
grounds.  Towards  the  close  of  his  life  old 
Mansker,  like  many  another  fearless  and 
ignorant  backwoods  fighter,  became  so 
much  impressed  by  the  fiery  earnestness  and 
zeal  of  the  Methodists  that  he  joined  him- 
self to  them,  and  became  a  strong  and  help- 
ful prop  of  the  community  whose  first  foun- 
dations he  had  helped  to  lay. 

Sometimes  the  hunters  met  creole  trap- 
pers, who  sent  their  tallow,  hides,  and  furs 
in  pirogues  and  bateaux  down  the  Missis- 
sippi to  Natchez  or  Orleans,,  instead  of  hav- 
ing to  transport  them  on  pack-horses 
through  the  perilous  forest-tracks  across 
the  mountains.  They  had  to  encounter 
dangers  from  beasts  as  well  as  men.  More 
than  once  we  hear  of  one  who,  in  a  cane- 
brake  or  tangled  thicket,  was  mangled  to 
death  by  the  horns  and  hoofs  of  a  wounded 
buffalo.27  All  of  the  wild  beasts  were  then 
comparatively  unused  to  contact  with  rifle- 
bearing  hunters  ;  they  were,  in  consequence, 
much  more  ferocious  and  ready  to  attack 
man  than  at  present.  The  bear  were  the 
most  numerous  of  all,  after  the  deer;  their 

"As  Haywood,  81. 


196  THE   U'' I. \XIXG  OP 

chase  was  a  favorite  sport.  There  was  just 
enough  danger  in  it  to  make  it  exciting,  for 
though  hunters  were  frequently  bitten  or 
clawed,  they  were  hardly  ever  killed.  The 
wolves  were  generally  very  wary ;  yet  in 
rare  instances  they,  too,  were  dangerous. 
The  panther  was  a  much  more  dreaded  foe. 
and  lives  were  sometimes  lost  in  hunting 
him ;  but  even  with  the  panther,  the  cases 
where  the  hunter  was  killed  were  very  ex- 
ceptional. 

The  hunters  were  in  their  lives  some- 
times clean  and  straight,  and  sometimes  im- 
moral, with  a  gross  and  uncouth  vicious- 
ness.  \Ye  read  of  one  party  of  six  men  and 
a  woman,  who  were  encountered  on  the 
Cumberland  River ;  the  woman  acted  as 
the  wife  of  a  man  named  Big  John,  but  de- 
serted him  for  one  of  his  companions,  and 
when  he  fell  sick  persuaded  the  whole  party 
to  leave  him  in  the  wilderness  to  die  of  dis- 
ease and  starvation.  Yet  those  who  left  him 
did  not  in  the  end  fare  better,  for  they  were 
ambushed  and  cut  oft,  when  they  had  gone 
down  to  Natchez,  apparently  bv  Indians. 

At  first  the  hunters,  with  their  small-bore 
rifles,  were  unsuccessful  in  killing  buffalo. 
Once,  when  George  Rogers  Clark  had  long 
resided  in  Kentuckv,  he  and  two  compan- 
ions discovered  a  ("imp  of  some  fortv  new- 
comers actuallv  starving,  though  buffalo 
were  plentv.  (.'lark  and  his  friends  speedily 
relieved  their  necessities  bv  killing  fourteen 
of  the  great  beasts ;  for  when  once  the 


THE  WEST  197 

hunters  had  found  out  the  knack,  the  buf- 
falo were  easier  slaughtered  than  any  other 
game.28 

The  hunters  were  the  pioneers ;  but  close 
behind  them  came  another  set  of  explorers 
quite  as  hardy  and  resolute.  These  were  the 
surveyors.  The  men  of  chain  and  compass 
played  a  part  in  the  exploration  of  the  west 
scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  the  heroes  of  axe 
and  rifle.  Often,  indeed,  the  parts  were 
combined ;  Boone  himself  was  a  surveyor.29 
Vast  tracts  of  western  land  were  contin- 
ually being  allotted  either  to  actual  settlers 
or  as  bounties  to  soldiers  who  had  served 
against  the  French  and  Indians.  These  had 
to  be  explored  and  mapped  and  as  there  was 
much  risk  as  well  as  reward  in  the  task,  it 
naturally  proved  attractive  to  all  adventur- 
ous young  men  who  had  some  education,  a 
good  deal  of  ambition,  and  not  too  much 
fortune.  A  great  number  of  young  men  of 
good  families,  like  Washington  and  Clark, 
went  into  the  business.  Soon  after  the  return 
of  Boone  and  the  Long  Hunters,  parties  of 

28  This  continued  to  he  the  case  until  the  buffalo 
were  all  destroyed.    When  my  cattle  came  to  the 
Little  Missouri,  in  1882,  buffalo  were  plenty;  my 
men  killed  nearly  a  hundred  that  winter,  though 
lending   the   cattle;    yet   an    inexperienced   hunter 
not  far  from  us,  though  a  hardy  plainsman,  killed 
only  three  in  the  whole  time.     See  also  Parkman's 
"  Oregon   Trail  "    for  an   instance   of   a   party   of 
Missouri   backwoodsmen   who   made  a   character- 
istic failure  in  an  attempt  on  a  buffalo  band. 

29  See  Appendix. 


198  THE  jr/.v.vm;  or 

surveyors  came  down  the  Ohio,30  mapping 
out  its  course  and  exploring  the  Kentucky 
lands  that  lay  beside  it.31 

Among  the  hunters,  surveyors,  and  ex- 
plorers who  came  into  the  wilderness  in 
1773  was  a  band  led  by  three  young  men 
named  McAfee,— typical  backwoodsmen, 
hardy,  adventurous,  their  frontier  reckless- 
ness and  license  tempered  by  the  Calvinism 
they  had  learned  in  their  rough  log  home. 
They  were  fond  of  hunting,  but  they  came 
to  spy  out  the  land  and  see  if  it  could  be 
made  into  homes  for  their  children;  and  in 
their  party  were  several  surveyors.  They 
descended  the  Ohio  in  dugout  canoes,  with 
their  rifles,  blankets,  tomahawks,  and  fish- 
ing-tackle. They  met  some  Shawnees  and 
gut  on  well  with  them ;  but  while  their 
leader  was  visiting  the  chief,  Cornstalk,  and 
listening  to  his  fair  speeches  at  his  town  of 
Old  Chilicothe,  the  rest  of  the  partv  were 
startled  to  see  a  band  of  young  Shawnee 
braves  returning  from  a  successful  foray  on 
the  settlements,  driving  before  them  the 
laden  pack-horses  they  had  stolen/"2 

Thev  explored  part  of  Kentuckv,  and  vis- 
ited the  different  lick's.  One.  long  named 

*"  An  Knpli-h  engineer  mafic  a  rude  survey  or 
table  of  distances  of  the  Ohio  in  1766. 

11  Collin-  -tales  that  in  1770  and  \~~2  Washing- 
ton surveyed  -mall  tracts  in  what  i-  now  north- 
ea-tern  Kentucky;  l":t  thi-  i-  more  than  doubtful. 

"All  of  tin,  is  talo-n  from  the  McAfee  MSS., 
in  Colonel  Durrett's  library. 


Big  Bone  Lick,  was  famous  because  there 
were  scattered  about  it  in  incredible  quan- 
tity the  gigantic  remains  of  the  extinct  mas- 
todon ;  the  McAfees  made  a  tent  by  stretch- 
ing their  blankets  over  the  huge  fossil  ribs, 
and  used  the  disjointed  vertebra::  as  stools 
on  which  to  sit.  Game  of  many  kinds 
thronged  the  spaces  round  the  licks ;  herds 
of  buffalo,  elk,  and  deer,  as  well  as  bears 
and  wolves,  were  all  in  sight  at  once.  The 
ground  round  about  some  of  them  was  trod- 
den down  so  that  there  was  not  as  much 
grass  left  as  would  feed  a  sheep ;  and  the 
game  trails  were  like  streets,  or  the  beaten 
roads  round  a  city.  A  little  village  to  this 
day  recalls  by  its  name  the  fact  that  it 
stands  on  a  former  "  stamping  ground  "  of 
the  buffalo.  At  one  lick  the  explorers  met 
with  what  might  have  proved  a  serious  ad- 
venture. One  of  the  McAfees  and  a  com- 
panion were  passing  round  its  outskirts, 
when  some  others  of  the  party  fired  at  a 
gang  of  buffaloes,  which  stampeded  directly 
towards  the  two.  While  his  companion 
scampered  up  a  leaning  mulberry  bush,  Mc- 
Afee, less  agile,  leaped  behind  a  tree  trunk, 
where  he  stood  sideways  till  the  buffalo 
passed,  their  horns  scraping  off  the  bark  on 
either  side ;  then  he  looked  round  to  see  h!s 
friend  "  hanging  in  the  mulberry  bush  like 
a  coon."38 


33  McAfee  MSS.     A  similar  adventure  befell  my 
brother    Elliott    and    my    cousin   John    Roosevelt 


200  THE  WINNING  OF 

When  the  party  left  this  lick  they  fol- 
lowed a  buffalo  trail,  beaten  out  in  the  for- 
est, "  the  size  of  the  wagon  road  leading 
out  of  Williamsburg,"  then  the  capital  of 
Virginia.  It  crossed  the  Kentucky  River 
at  a  rifile  below  where  Frankfort  now 
stands.  Thence  they  started  homewards 
across  the  Cumberland  Mountains,  and  suf- 
fered terribly  while  making  their  way 
through  the  "  desolate  and  voiceless  soli- 
tudes " ;  mere  wastes  of  cliffs,  crags,  cav- 
erns, and  steep  hillsides  covered  with  pine, 
laurel,  and  underbrush.  Twice  they  were 
literally  starving  and  were  saved  in  the  nick 
of  time  by  the  killing,  on  the  first  occasion, 
of  a  big  bull  elk,  on  the  next,  of  a  small 
spike  buck.  At  last,  sun-scorched  and  rain- 
beaten,  foot-sore  and  leg-weary,  their  thighs 
torn  to  pieces  by  the  stout  briars,34  and  their 
feet  and  hands  blistered  and  scalded,  they 
came  out  in  Powell's  Valley,  and  followed 
the  well-worn  hunter's  trail  across  it. 
Thence  it  was  easy  to  reach  home,  where 
the  tale  of  their  adventures  excited  still 
more  the  young  frontiersmen. 

Their  troubles  were  ended  for  the  time 
being;  but  in  Powell's  Valley  they  met 
other  wanderers  whose  toil  and  peril  had 
just  begun.  There  they  encountered  the 

while   they    were   hunting   buffalo   on    the    staked 
plain^  of  Texas  in   1877. 

"  They    evidently    wore   breech-clouts   and    leg- 
gings, not  trousers. 


THE  WEST  201 

company35  which  Daniel  Boone  was  just 
leading  across  the  mountains,  with  the  hope 
of  making  a  permanent  settlement  in  the 
far  distant  Kentucky.36  Boone  had  sold  his 
farm  on  the  Yadkin  and  all  the  goods  he 
could  not  carry  with  him,  and  in  September, 
1773,  he  started  for  Kentucky  with  his  wife 
and  his  children ;  five  families,  and  forty 
men  besides,  went  with  him,  driving  their 
horses  and  cattle.  It  was  the  first  attempt 
that  was  made  to  settle  a  region  separated 
by  long  stretches  of  wilderness  from  the 
already  inhabited  districts ;  and  it  was 
doomed  to  failure.  On  approaching  the 
gloomy  and  forbidding  defiles  of  the  Cum- 
berland Mountains  the  party  was  attacked 
by  Indians.37  Six  of  the  men,  including 
Boone's  eldest  son,  were  slain,  and  the  cat- 
tle scattered ;  and  though  the  backwoods- 
men rallied  and  repulsed  their  assailants, 
yet  they  had  suffered  such  loss  and  damage 
that  they  retreated  and  took  up  their  abode 
temporarily  on  the  Clinch  River. 

In  the  same  year  Simon  Kenton,  after- 
wards famous  as  a  scout  and  Indian  fighter, 
in  company  with  other  hunters,  wandered 
through  Kentucky.  Kenton,  like  every  one 
else,  was  astounded  at  the  beauty  and  fer- 
tility of  the  land  and  the  innumerable  herds 

s;  McAfee  MSS.  "  Filson's  "  Boone." 

"October  TO.  17/3,  Filson's  ''Boone.''  The 
McAfee  MSS.  speak  of  meeting  Boone  in  Pow- 
ell's Valley  and  getting  home  in  September;  if 
so,  it  must  have  been  the  very  end  of  the  month. 


202  THE   ll'IXXIXG  OP 

of  buffalo,  elk,  and  other  game  that 
thronged  the  trampled  ground  around  the 
licks.  One  of  his  companions  was  taken  by 
the  Indians,  who  burned  him  alive. 

In  the  following  year  numerous  parties 
of  surveyors  visited  the  land.  One  of  these 
was  headed  by  John  Floyd,  who  was  among 
the  ablest  of  the  Kentucky  pioneers,  and 
afterwards  played  a  prominent  part  in  the 
young  commonwealth,  until  his  death  at  the 
hands  of  the  savages.  Floyd  was  at  the 
time  assistant  surveyor  of  Fincastle 
County ;  and  his  party  went  out  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  surveys  "  by  virtue  of  the 
Governor's  warrant  for  officers  and  soldiers 
on  the  Ohio  and  its  waters."38 

They  started  on  April  9,  1774, — eight 
men  in  all, — from  their  homes  in  Fincastle 
Count}-.39  They  went  down  the  Kanawha 
in  a  canoe,  shooting  bear  and  deer,  and 

"  The  account  of  this  journey  of  Floyd  and  his 
companions  is  taken  from  a  very  interesting  MS. 
journal,  kept  by  one  of  the  party — Thomas  Han- 
son. It  \vas  funiMied  me.  together  with  other 
valuable  papers  through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Daniel  Trieg.  of  Abingdon,  Ya..  and  of  Dr. 
George  Ben.  Johnston,  of  Richmond,  to  whom  I 
take  this  opportunity  of  returning  my  warm 
thanks 

"From  the  house  of  Col.  William  Preston,  "at 
one  o'clock,  in  hisjh  =pirits."  They  took  the  canoe 
at  the  mouth  of  Flk  River,  on  the  i6th.  ATost  of 
the  diary  is,  of  cour-e.  taken  up  with  notes  on  the 
character  and  fertility  of  the  lands,  and  memo- 
randa of  the  Mirveys  made.  Imperial  comment  is 
made  on  a  burning  ^pring  by  the  Kanawha.  which 
is  dubbed  "  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world." 


THE  WEST 


203 


catching  great  pike  and  catfish.  The  first 
survey  they  made  was  one  of  two  thousand 
acres  for  "  Colo.  Washington  " ;  and  they 
made  another  for  Patrick  Henry.  On  the 
way  they  encountered  other  parties  of  sur- 
veyors, and  learned  that  an  Indian  war  was 
threatened ;  for  a  party  of  thirteen  would- 
be  settlers  on  the  upper  Ohio  had  been  at- 
tacked, but  had  repelled  their  assailants, 
and  in  consequence  the  Shawnees  had  de- 
clared for  war,  and  threatened  thereafter  to 
kill  the  Virginians  and  rob  the  Pennsylvan- 
ians  wherever  they  found  them.40  The  rea- 
son for  this  discrimination  in  favor  of  the 
citizens  of  the  Quaker  State  was  that  the 
Virginians  with  whom  the  Indians  came 
chiefly  in  contact  were  settlers,  whereas  the 
Pennsylvanians  were  traders.  The  marked 
difference  in  the  way  the  savages  looked  at 
the  two  classes  received  additional  emphasis 
in  Lord  Dunmore's  war. 

At  the  mouth  of  the  Kanawha41  the  ad- 
venturers found  twenty  or  thirty  men  gath- 
ered together ;  some  had  come  to  settle, 
but  most  wished  to  explore  or  survey  the 
lands.  All  were  in  high  spirits,  and  reso- 
lute to  go  to  Kentucky,  in  spite  of  Indian 

40  They  received  this  news  on  April  i7th,  and 
confirmation  thereof  on  the  iQth.  The  dates 
should  be  kept  in  mind,  as  they  show  that  the 
Shawnees  had  begun  hostilities  from  a  fortnight 
to  a  month  before  Crcsap's  attack  and  the  murder 
of  Logan's  family,  which  will  be  described  here- 
after. 

u  Which  they  reached  on  the  20th. 


204  THE  BINNING  OF 

hostilities.  Some  of  them  joined  Floyd, 
and  raised  his  party  to  eighteen  men,  who 
started  down  the  Ohio  in  four  canoes.42 
They  found  "  a  hattoe  loaded  with  corn," 
apparently  abandoned,  and  took  about  three 
bushels  with  them.  Other  parties  joined 
them  from  time  to  time,  as  they  paddled  and 
drifted  down  stream;  and  one  or  two  of 
their  own  number,  alarmed  by  further  news 
of  Indian  hostilities,  went  back.  Once  they 
met  a  party  of  Delawares,  by  whom  they 
were  not  molested  ;  and  again,  two  or  three 
of  their  number  encountered  a  couple  of 
hostile  savages ;  and  though  no  one  was 
hurt,  the  party  kept  on  the  watch  all  the 
time.  They  marvelled  much  at  the  great 
trees — one  sycamore  was  thirtv-sevcn  feet 
in  circumference. — and  on  a  Sunday,  which 
they  kept  as  a  day  of  rest,  they  examined 
with  interest  the  forest-covered  embank- 
ments of  a  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  Scioto, 
a  memorial  of  the  mound-builders  who  had 
vanished  centuries  before. 

When  they  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
Kentucky43  they  found  two  Delawares  and 
a  squaw,  to  whom  they  gave  corn  and  salt. 
Here  they  split  up,  and  Floyd  and  his  orig- 
inal party  spent  a  week  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, surveying  land,  going  some  distance 
up  the  Kentucky  to  a  salt  lick,  where  they 
saw  a  herd  of  three  hundred  buffalo.4* 

"On  the  22d. 

"On  May  ijth. 

"  There    were    quarrels    among    the    surveyors. 


THE  WEST  205 

They  then  again  embarked,  and  drifted 
down  the  Ohio.  On  May  26th  they  met 
two  Dela wares  in  a  canoe  flying  a  red  flag ! 
they  had  been  sent  down  the  river  with  a 
pass  from  the  commandant  at  Fort  Pitt  to 
gather  their  hunters  and  get  them  home,  in 
view  of  the  threatened  hostilities  between 
the  Shawnees  and  Virginians.45  The  ac- 
tions of  the  two  Indians  were  so  suspicious, 
and  the  news  they  brought  was  so  alarming, 
that  some  of  Floyd's  companions  became 
greatly  alarmed,  and  wished  to  go  straight 
on  down  the  Mississippi ;  but  Floyd  swrore 
that  he  would  finish  his  work  unless  actually 
forced  off.  Three  days  afterwards  they 
reached  the  Falls. 

Here  Floyd  spent  a  fortnight,  making 
surveys  in  every  direction,  and  then  started 
off  to  explore  the  land  between  the  Salt 
River  and  the  Kentucky.  Like  the  others, 

The  entry  for  May  I3th  runs:  "Our  company 
divided,  eleven  men  went  up  to  Harrad's  com- 
pany one  hundred  miles  up  the  Cantucky  or  Louisa 
river  (n.  b.  one  Capt.  Harrad  has  been  there  many 
months  building  a  kind  of  Town  &c)  in  order  to 
make  improvements.  This  day  a  quarrel  arose 
between  Mr.  Lee  and  Mr.  Hyte ;  Lee  cut  a  Stick 
and  gave  Hyte  a  Whiping  with  it,  upon  which  Mr. 
Floyd  demanded  the  King's  Peace  which  stopt  it 
sooner  than  it  would  have  ended  if  he  had  not 
been  there.'' 

"  They  said  that  in  a  skirmish  the  whites  had 
killed  thirteen  Shawnees,  two  Mingos,  and  one 
Delaware  (this  may  or  may  not  mean  the  massa- 
cres by  Cresap  and  Greathouse ;  see,  post,  chapter 
on  Lord  Dunmore's  War). 


206  THE  WINNING  OF 

he  carried  his  own  pack,  which  consisted  of 
little  but  his  blanket  and  his  instruments. 
He  sometimes  had  difficulties  with  his  men ; 
one  of  them  refused  to  carry  the  chain  one 
day,  and  went  off  to  hunt,  got  lost,  and  was 
not  found  for  thirty-six  hours.  Another 
time  it  was  noticed  that  two  of  the  hunters 
had  become  sullen,  and  seemed  anxious  to 
leave  camp.  The  following-  morning,  while 
on  the  march,  the  party  killed  an  elk  and 
halted  for  breakfast ;  but  the  two  hunters 
walked  on,  and,  says  the  journal,  "  we  never 
saw  them  more  " ;  but  whether  they  got 
back  to  the  settlements  or  perished  in  the 
wilderness,  none  could  tell. 

The  party  suffered  much,  hardship. 
Floyd  fell  sick,  and  for  three  days  could  not 
travel.  They  gave  him  an  "  Indian  sweat," 
probably  building  just  such  a  little  sweat- 
In  »use  as  the  Indians  use  to  this  day.  Others 
of  their  number  at  different  times  fell  ill; 
and  they  were  ever  on  the  watch  for  In- 
dians. In  the  vast  forests,  every  sign  of  a 
human  being  was  the  si^n  of  a  probable 
enemv.  Once  they  heard  a  gun,  and  an- 
other time  a  sound  as  of  a  man  calling  to 
another;  and  on  each  occasion  they  re- 
doubled their  caution,  keeping  guard  as 
they  rested,  and  at  night  extinguishing 
their  camp-fire  and  sleeping  a  mile  or  two 
from  it. 

They  built  a  bark  canoe  in  which  to  cross 
the  Kentucky,  and  on  the  ist  of  July  they 
met  another  party  of  surveyors  on  the  banks 


THE  WEST 


907 


of  that  stream.46  Two  or  three  days  after- 
wards, Floyd  and  three  companions  left  the 
others,  agreeing  to  meet  them  on  August 
ist,  at  a  cabin  built  by  a  man  named  Har- 
wood,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Kentucky,  a 
few  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  Elkhorn. 
For  three  weeks  they  surveyed  and  hunted, 
enchanted  with  the  beauty  of  the  country.47 
They  then  \vent  to  the  cabin,  several  days 
before  the  appointed  time ;  but  to  their  sur- 
prise found  every  thing  scattered  over  the 
ground,  and  two  fires  burning,  while  on  a 
tree  near  the  landing  was  written,  ''Alarmed 
by  finding  some  people  killed  and  we  are 
gone  down."  This  left  the  four  adventur- 
ers in  a  bad  plight,  as  they  had  but  fifteen 
rounds  of  powder  left,  and  none  of  them 
knew  the  way  home.  However  there  was 
no  help  for  it,  and  they  started  off.48  When 
they  came  to  the  mountains  they  found  it 
such  hard  going  that  they  were  obliged  to 
throw  away  their  blankets  and  every  thing 
else  except  their  rifles,  hunting-shirts,  leg- 
gings, and  moccasins.  Like  the  other  par- 

48  Where  the  journal  says  the  land  "  is  like  a 
paradise,  it  is  so  good  and  beautiful." 

"  The  journal  for  July  8th  says:  "  The  Land  is 
so  good  that  I  cannot  give  it  its  due  Praise.  The 
undergrowth  is  Clover,  Pea-vine,  Cane  &  Nettles ; 
intermingled  with  Rich  Weed.  It's  timber  is 
Honey  Locust,  Black  Walnut,  Sugar  Tree,  Hick- 
ory, Iron-Wrood,  Hoop  Wood,  Mulberry,  Ash  and 
Elm  and  some  Oak."  And  later  it  dwells  on  the 
high  limestone  cliffs  facing  the  river  on  both 
sides. 

4S  On  July  25th. 


2o8  77/7:    ll'lXXIXG   OF 

ties  of  returning  explorers,  they  found  this 
portion  of  their  journey  extremely  distress- 
ing ;  and  they  suffered  much  from  sore  feet, 
and  also  from  warn  of  food,  until  they  came 
on  a  gang  of  buffaloes,  and  killed  two.  At 
last  they  struck  Cumberland  Clap,  followed  a 
blazed  trail  across  it  to  Powell's  Valley,  and 
on  August  <;th  came  to  the  outlying  settle- 
ments on  Clinch  River,  where  they  found 
the  settlers  all  in  their  wooden  forts,  be- 
cause of  the  war  with  the  Shawnees.49 

In  this  same-  year  many  different  bodies 
of  hunters  and  surveyors  came  into  the 
countrv,  drifting  down  the  Ohio  in  pi- 
rogues. Some  forty  men  led  by  llarrod 
and  Sowdowsky50  founded  Harrodsburg, 

49  I  have  given  the  account  of  Floyd's  journey  at 
some  length  as  illustrating  the  experience  of  a 
typical  party  of  surveyors.  The  journal  has  never 
hitherto  been  alluded  t<>.  and  my  getting  hold  of 
it  was  almost  accidental. 

There  were  three  different  kinds  of  explorers; 
Bonne  repre-ents  the  hunter-:  the  McAfees  rep- 
re-ent  the  would-be  settlers  ;  and  Floyd's  party  the 
surveyors  who  mapped  mit  the  land  for  owners  of 
land  grant1-.  In  1774.  there  were  panic-  of  each 
kind  in  Kentucky.  Floyd'-  experience  show-  that 
these  panic-  were  continually  meeting  others  and 
splitting  up:  he  started  out  with  eight  men,  at 
one  time  wa<  in  a  hody  with  thirty-seven,  and  re- 
turned hnme  with  f'>ur. 

The  journal  i-  written  in  a  singularly  clear  and 
legible  hand,  evidently  by  a  man  of  good  educa- 
tion. 

*'  The  latter.  iV'tii  hi-  name  presumably  of 
Sclavonic  ance-try.  came  originally  fr'Mii  New 
York,  always  ;>  centre  of  mixed  nationalities.  He 
founded  a  mo-t  respectable  family,  some  of  whom 


THE  WEST 


209 


where  they  built  cabins  and  sowed  corn; 

but  the  Indians  killed  one  of  their  number, 
and  the  rest  dispersed.  Some  returned 
across  the  mountains ;  but  Sowdowsky  and 
another  went  through  the  woods  to  the 
Cumberland  River,  where  they  built  a 
canoe,  paddled  down  the  muddy  Mississippi 
between  unending  reaches  of  lonely  marsh 
and  forest,  and  from  New  Orleans  took 
ship  to  Virginia. 

At  that  time,  among  other  parties  of 
surveyors  there  was  one  which  had  been 
sent  by  Lord  Dunmore  to  the  Falls  of  the 
Ohio.  When  the  war  broke  out  between 
the  Shawnees  and  the  Virginians,  Lord 
Dunmore,  being  very  anxious  for  the  fate 
of  these  surveyors,  sent  Boonc  and  Stoner  to 
pilot  them  in ;  which  the  two  bush  veterans 
accordingly  did,  making  the  round  trip  of 
800  miles  in  64  days.  The  outbreak  of  the 
Indian  war  caused  all  the  hunters  and  sur- 
veyors to  leave  Kentucky ;  and  at  the  end 
of  17/4  there  were  no  whites  left,  either 
there  or  in  what  is  now  middle  Tennessee. 
But  on  the  frontier  all  men's  eyes  were 
turned  towards  these  new  and  fertile  re- 
gions. The  pioneer  work  of  the  hunter  was 
over,  and  that  of  the  axe-bearing  settler  was 
about  to  begin. 

have  changed  their  name  to  Sandusky;  but  there 
seems  to  be  no  justification  for  their  claim  that 
they  gave  Sandusky  its  name,  for  this  is  almost 
certainly  a  corruption  of  its  old  Algonquin  title. 
"American  Pioneer"  (Cincinnati,  1843),  II.,  p. 
32.5- 


CHAPTER  VII 

SEVIER,   ROBERTSON,   AXD  THE  WATAUGA 
CO M  M O N  \V MALT II,     1 769- 1 774 

SOOX  after  the  successful  ending  of  the 
last  colonial  struggle  with  France,  and 
the  conquest  of  Canada,  the  British 
king  issued  a  proclamation  forbidding  the 
English  colonists  from  trespassing  on  In- 
dian grounds,  or  moving  \vest  of  the  moun- 
tains. Hut  in  1768,  at  the  treaty  of  Fort 
Stamvix,  the  Six  Nations  agreed  to  sur- 
render to  the  English  all  the  lands  lying 
between  the  Ohio  and  the  Tennessee1;  and 
this  treaty  was  at  once  seized  upon  by  the 
backwoodsmen  as  oik-ring  an  excuse  for  set- 
tling beyond  the  mountains.  However, 
the  Iroqnois  had  ceded  lands  to  which  they 
had  no  more  right  than  a  score  or  more 
other  Indian  tribes;  and  these  latter,  not 
having  been  consulted,  felt  at  perfect  liberty 
to  make  war  on  the  intruders.  In  point  of 
fact,  no  one  tribe  or  set  of  tribes  could  cede 
Kentucky  or  Tennessee,  because  no  one  tribe 
or  set  of  tribes  owned  either.  The  great 
hunting-grounds  between  the  Ohio  and  the 
Tennessee  formed  a  debatable  land,  claimed 
by  every  tribe  that  could  hold  its  own 
against  its  rivals.2 

1  Then  called  the  Cherokee. 

'  Volumes    could    be    filled — and    indeed    it    is 
210 


THE   WEST  211 

The  eastern  part  of  what  is  now  Ten- 
nessee consists  of  a  great  hill-strewn,  for- 
est-clad valley,  running  from  northeast  to 
southwest,  bounded  on  one  side  by  the 
Cumberland,  and  on  the  other  by  the  Great 
Smoky  and  Unaka  Mountains ;  the  latter 
separating  it  from  North  Carolina.  In  this 
valley  arise  and  end  the  Clinch,  the  Hol- 
ston,  the  Watauga,  the  Nolichucky,  the 
French  Broad,  and  the  other  streams,  whose 
combined  volume  makes  the  Tennessee 
River.  The  upper  end  of  the  valley  lies  in 
southwestern  Virginia,  the  head-waters  of 
some  of  the  rivers  being  well  within  that 
State ;  and  though  the  province  was  really 
part  of  North  Carolina,  it  was  separated 
therefrom  by  high  mountain  chains,  while 
from  Virginia  it  was  easy  to  follow  the 
watercourses  down  the  valley.  Thus,  as 
elsewhere  among  the  mountains  forming 
the  western  frontier,  the  first  movements  of 
population  went  parallel  with,  rather  than 
across,  the  ranges.  As  in  western  Virginia 
the  first  settlers  came,  for  the  most  part, 

hardly  too  much  to  say,  have  been  filled — with 
worthless  "  proofs  "  of  the  ownership  of  Iroquois, 
Shawnees,  or  Cherokees,  as  the  case  might  be.  In 
truth,  it  would  probably  have  been  difficult  to  get 
any  two  members  of  the  same  tribe  to  have 
pointed  out  with  precision  the  tribal  limits.  Each 
tribe's  country  was  elastic,  for  it  included  all 
lands  from  which  it  was  deemed  possible  to  drive 
out  the  possessors.  In  1773  the  various  parties  of 
Long  Hunters  had  just  the  same  right  to  _ the 
whole  of  the  territory  in  question  that  the  Indians 
themselves  had. 


THE   iriXXIXG  OF 


212 

from  Pennsylvania,  so,  in  turn,  in  what  was 
then  western  North  Carolina,  and  is  now 
eastern  Tennessee,  the  first  settlers  came 
mainly  from  Virginia,  and,  indeed,  in  great 
part,  from  this  same  Pennsylvania!!  stock.* 

'Campbell  MSS. 

"  The  first  settlers  on  Holston  River  were  a  re- 
markable race  of  people  for  their  intelligence,  en- 
terprise, and  hardy  adventure.  The  greater  por- 
tion of  them  had  emigrated  from  the  counties  of 
Botetourt.  Augusta,  and  Frederick,  and  others 
along  the  same  valley,  and  from  the  upper  conn- 
tie-  of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania;  were  mostly 
descendants  of  Irish  stock,  and  generally  where 
they  had  any  religious  opinions,  were  Presby- 
terian-. A  very  large  proportion  were  religions, 
and  many  were  members  of  the  church.  There 
were  some  families,  however,  and  amongst  the 
most  wealthv.  that  were  extremely  wild  and  dis- 
si.pated  in  their  habits. 

"  The  fir^t  clergyman  that  came  among  them 
was  the  Rev.  Charles  Cnmmings,  an  Irishman  by 
birth,  but  educated  in  Pennsylvania.  This  gen- 
tleman was  one  of  the  first  settlers,  defended  his 
domicile  for  years  \\ith  hi-  rifle  in  band,  and  built 
hi'  fir-t  mectintr-house  on  the  very  spot  where  he 
and  two  or  three  neighbor-  and  one  of  his  serv- 
ants had  bad  a  severe  -kirmi-h  with  the  Indians, 
in  which  one  of  his  party  wa-  killed  and  another 
wounded.  Here  lie  preached  to  a  very  large  and 
most  respectable  congregation  for  twenty  or  thirty 
years.  Hc  was  a  zealous  whig,  and  contributed 
much  to  kindle  the  patriotic  fire  which  blazed 
forth  among  these  people  in  the  revolutionary 
struggle." 

This  is  from  a  MS.  sketch  of  the  Holston 
Pioneer-;,  by  the  Hon.  David  Campbell,  a  «on  of 
one  of  the  first  settlers.  The  Campbell  family,  of 
Presbyterian  Irish  stock,  fir-t  came  to  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  drifted  south.  In  the  revolutionary 


THE  WEST  213 

Of  course,  in  each  case  there  was  also  a 
very  considerable  movement  directly  west- 
ward.4 They  were  a  sturdy  race,  enterpris- 
ing and  intelligent,  fond  of  the  strong  ex- 
citement inherent  in  the  adventurous  fron- 
tier life.  Their  untamed  and  turbulent  pas- 
sions, and  the  lawless  freedom  of  their 

war  it  produced  good  soldiers  and  commanders, 
such  as  William  and  Arthur  Campbell.  The 
Campbells  intermarried  with  the  Prestons,  Breck- 
cnridges,  and  other  historic  families;  and  their 
blood  now  runs  in  the  veins  of  many  of  the  noted 
men  of  the  States  south  of  the  Potomac  and  Ohio. 
*  The  first  settlers  on  the  Watauga  included 
both  Virginians  (as  "  Captain "  William  Bean, 
whose  child  was  the  first  born  in  what  is  now 
Tennessee;  Ramsey,  94)  and  Carolinians  (Hay- 
wood,  37).  But  many  of  these  Carolina  hill  peo- 
ple were,  like  Boone  and  Henderson,  members  of 
families  who  had  drifted  down  from  the  north. 
The  position  of  the  Presbyterian  churches  in  all 
this  western  hill  country  shows  the  origin  of  that 
portion  of  the  people  which  gave  the  tone  to  the 
rest;  and,  as  we  have  already  seen,  while  some 
of  the  Presbyterians  penetrated  to  the  hills  from 
Charleston,  most  came  down  from  the  north.  The 
Presbyterian  blood  was,  of  course,  Irish  or 
Scotch;  and  the  numerous  English  from  the  coast 
regions  also  mingled  with  the  two  former  kindred 
stocks,  and  adopted  their  faith.  The  Huguenots, 
Hollanders,  and  many  of  the  Germans,  being  of 
Calvinistic  creed,  readily  assimilated  themselves 
to  the  Presbyterians.  The  absence  of  Episcopacy 
on  the  western  border,  while  in  part  indicating 
merely  the  lack  of  religion  in  the  backwoods,  and 
the  natural  growth  of  dissent  in  such  a  society, 
also  indicates  that  the  people  were  not  of  pure 
English  descent,  and  were  of  different  stock  from 
those  east  of  them. 


2i4  THE   WINNING  OF 

lives,  made  them  a  population  very  pro- 
ductive of  wild,  headstrong  characters ;  yet, 
as  a  whole,  they  were  a  God-fearing  race,  as 
was  but  natural  in  those  who  sprang  from 

the  loins  of  the  Irish  Calvinists.  Their 
preachers,  all  Presbyterians,  followed  close 
behind  the  first  settlers,  and  shared  their 
tuil  and  dangers  ;  they  tilled  their  fields  rifle 
in  hand,  and  fought  the  Indians  valorously. 
They  felt  that  they  were  dispossessing  the 
Canaanites,  and  were  thus  working  the 
Lord's  will  in  preparing  the  land  for  a  race 
which  they  believed  was  more  truly  His 
chosen  people  than  was  that  nation  which 
Joshua  led  across  the  Jordan.  They  ex- 
horted no  less  earnestly  in  the  bare  meet- 
ing-houses on  Sunday,  because  their  hands 
were  roughened  with  guiding  the  plow  and 
wielding  the  axe  on  week-days;  for  they 
did  not  believe  that  being  called  to  preach 
the  word  of  God  absolved  them  from  earn- 
ing their  living  by  the  sweat  of  their  brows. 
The  women,  the  wives  of  the  settlers,  were 
of  the  same  iron  temper.  They  fearlessly 
fronted  every  danger  the  men  did,  and  they 
worked  quite  as  hard.  They  prized  the 
knowledge  and  learning  they  themselves 
had  been  forced  to  do  without ;  and  many 
a  backwoods  woman  bv  thrift  and  industry, 
by  the  sale  of  her  butter  and  cheese,  and 
the  calves  from  her  cows,  enabled  her  hus- 
band to  give  his  sons  good  schooling,  and 
perhaps  to  provide  for  some  favored  mem- 


THE  WEST  215 

her  of  the  family  the  opportunity  to  secure 
a  really  first-class  education.5 

The  valley  in  which  these  splendid  pio- 
neers of  our  people  settled,  lay  directly  in 
the  track  of  the  Indian  marauding  parties, 
for  the  great  war  trail  used  by  the  Chero- 
kees  and  by  their  northern  foes  ran  along 
its  whole  length.  This  war  trail,  or  war 
trace  as  it  was  then  called,  was  in  places 
very  distinct,  although  apparently  never  as 
well  marked  as  were  some  of  the  buffalo 
trails.  It  sent  off  a  branch  to  Cumberland 
Gap,  whence  it  ran  directly  north  through 
Kentucky  to  the  Ohio,  being  there  known 
as  the  warriors'  path.  Along  these  trails 
the  northern  and  southern  Indians  passed 
and  repassed  when  they  went  to  war 
against  each  other ;  and  of  course  they  were 
ready  and  eager  to  attack  any  white  man 
who  might  settle  down  along  their  course. 

In  1769,  the  year  that  Boone  first  went  to 
Kentucky,  the  first  permanent  settlers  came 
to  the  banks  of  the  Watauga,6  the  settle- 
ment being  merely  an  enlargement  of  the 

B  Campbell  MSS. 

'  For  this  settlement  see  especially  "  Civil  and 
Political  History  of  the  State  of  Tennessee," 
John  Haywood  (Knoxville.  1823),  p.  37;  also 
"  Annals  of  Tennessee."  J.  G.  M.  Ramsey 
(Charleston,  1853).  p.  92;  "History  of  Middle 
Tennessee,"  A.  W.  Putnam  (Nashville.  1859),  p. 
21  ;  the  "  Address  "  of  the  Hon.  John  Allison  to 
the  Tennessee  Press  Association  (Nashville, 
1887)  ;  and  the  "  History  of  Tennessee,"  by 
James  Phelan  (Boston,  if" 


2i6  THE   WINNING  OF 

Virginia  settlement,  which  had  for  a  short 
time  existed  on  the  head-waters  of  the 
Holston,  especially  near  Wolf  Hills.7  At 
first  the  settlers  thought  they  were  still  in 
the  domain  of  Virginia,  for  at  that  time  the 
line  marking  her  southern  boundary  had 
not  been  run  so  far  west.8  Indeed,  had 
they  not  considered  the  land  as  belonging 
to  Virginia,  they  would  probably  not  at  the 
moment  have  dared  to  intrude  farther  on 
territory  claimed  by  the  Indians.  But  while 
the  treaty  between  the  crown  and  the  Iro- 
quois  at  Fort  Stanwix  9  had  resulted  in  the 
cession  of  whatever  right  the  Six  Nations 
had  to  the  southwestern  territory,  another 
treaty  was  concluded  about  the  same  time  lrt 
with  the  Cherokees,  by  which  the  latter 
agreed  to  surrender  their  claims  to  a  small 
portion  of  this  country,  though  as  a  matter 
of  fact  before  the  treaty  was  signed  white 
settlers  had  crowded  beyond  the  limits  al- 
lowed them.  These  two  treaties,  in  the  first 
of  which  one  set  of  tribes  surrendered  a 
small  portion  of  land,  while  in  the  second 
an  entirely  different  confederacy  surren- 
dered a  larger  tract,  which,  however,  in- 
cluded part  of  the  first  cession,  are  suffi- 

r  Now  Abingdon. 

*  It  only  went  to  Steep  Rock. 

8  November  q.  1768. 

10  October  14.  i;r,8.  at  Hard  Labor.  S.  C,  con- 
firmee by  the  treaty  of  October  18.  1/70.  at  Lock- 
abar.  S.  C.  Roth  of  the^c  treaties  acknowledged 
the  rights  of  the  Cherokees  to  the  major  part  of 
these  northwestern  hunting-grounds. 


THE  WEST  217 

cient  to  show  the  absolute  confusion  of  the 
Indian  land  titles. 

But  in  1771,  one  of  the  new-comers,11 
who  was  a  practical  surveyor,  ran  out  the 
Virginia  boundary  line  some  distance  to  the 
westward,  and  discovered  that  the  Watauga 
settlement  came  within  the  limits  of  North 
Carolina.  Hitherto  the  settlers  had  sup- 
posed that  they  themselves  were  governed 
by  the  Virginian  law,  and  that  their  rights 
as  against  the  Indians  were  guaranteed  by 
the  Virginian  government ;  but  this  dis- 
covery threw  them  back  upon  their  own  re- 
sources. They  suddenly  found  themselves 
obliged  to  organize  a  civil  government,  un- 
der which  they  themselves  should  live,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  enter  into  a  treaty  on 
their  own  account  with  the  neighboring  In- 
dians, to  whom  the  land  they  were  on  ap- 
parently belonged. 

The  first  need  was  even  more  pressing 
than  the  second.  North  Carolina  was  al- 
ways a  turbulent  and  disorderly  colony,  un- 
able to  enforce  law  and  justice  even  in  the 
long-settled  districts ;  so  that  it  was  wholly 
out  of  the  question  to  appeal  to  her  for  aid 
in  governing  a  remote  and  outlying  com- 
munity. Moreover,  about  the  time  that  the 
Watauga  commonwealth  was  founded,  the 
troubles  in  North  Carolina  came  to  a  head. 
Open  war  ensued  between  the  adherents  of 
the  royal  governor,  Tryon,  on  the  one  hand, 

"Anthony  Bledsoe. 


2i8  THE   WINKING  OF 

and  the  Regulators,  as  the  insurgents  styled 
themselves,  on  the  other,  the  struggle  end- 
ing with  the  overthrow  of  the  Regulators  at 
the  battle  of  the  Alamance.12 

As  a  consequence  of  these  troubles,  many 
people  from  the  back  counties  of  North 
Carolina  crossed  the  mountains,  and  took 
up  their  abode  among  the  pioneers  on  the 
Watauga  13  and  upper  Ilolston;  the  beau- 
tiful valley  of  the  Nolichucky  soon  receiv- 
ing its  share  of  this  stream  of  immigration. 
Amung  the  first  comers  were  many  mem- 
bers of  the  class  of  desperate  adventurers 
always  to  be  found  hanging  round  the  out- 
skirts of  frontier  civilization.  Horse-thieves, 
murderers,  escaped  bond-servants,  runaway 
debtors — all,  in  fleeing  from  the  law,  sought 
to  find  a  secure  asylum  in  the  wilderness.  The 
brutal  and  lawless  wickedness  of  these  men, 
whose  uncouth  and  raw  savagery  was  almost 
more  repulsive  than  that  of  city  criminals, 
made  it  imperative  upon  the  decent  members 
of  the  community  to  unite  for  self-protection. 
The  desperadoes  were  often  mere  human 
beasts  of  prev ;  they  plundered  whites  and 

"May  1 6,  1771. 

11  It  is  said  that  the  greatest  proportion  of  the 
early  settlers  came  from  Wake  County.  X.  C,  as 
did  Robertson  ;  but  many  of  them,  like  Robert- 
son, were  of  Virginian  birth;  and  the  great  ma- 
jority were  of  the  same  -tock  as  the  Virpinian  and 
Pennsylvanian  mountaineer^.  Of  the  fiye  mem- 
bers of  the  "  court  ''  or  governing  committee  of 
\Vatauga,  three  \vere  of  Virginian  birth,  one  came 
from  South  Carolina,  and  the  origin  of  the  other 
is  not  .-pecified.  Ramsey,  107. 


THE  WEST  2i9 

Indians  impartially.  They  not  only  by  their 
thefts  and  murders  exasperated  the  Indians 
into  retaliating  on  innocent  whites,  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  they  also  often  deserted  their 
own  color  and  went  to  live  among  the  red- 
skins, becoming  their  leaders  in  the  worst 
outrages.14 

But  the  bulk  of  the  settlers  were  men  of 
sterling  worth ;  fit  to  be  the  pioneer  fathers 
of  a  mighty  and  beautiful  state.  They  pos- 
sessed the  courage  that  enabled  them  to 
defy  outside  foes,  together  with  the  rough, 
practical  common-sense  that  allowed  them 
to  establish  a  simple  but  effective  form  of 
government,  so  as  to  preserve  order  among 
themselves.  To  succeed  in  the  wilderness, 
it  was  necessary  to  possess  not  only  daring, 
but  also  patience  and  the  capacity  to  endure 
grinding  toil.  The  pioneers  were  hunters 
and  husbandmen.  Each,  by  the  aid  of  axe 

14  In  Collins,  II.,  345,  is  an  account  of  what  may 
be  termed  a  type  family  of  these  frontier  barba- 
rians. They  were  named  Harpe ;  and  there  is 
something  revoltingly  bestial  in  the  record  of  their 
crimes;  of  how  they  travelled  through  the  coun- 
try, the  elder  brother,  Micajah  Harpe,  with  two 
wives,  the  younger  with  only  one;  of  the  ap- 
palling number  of  murders  they  committed,  for 
even  small  sums  of  money;  of  their  unnatural 
proposal  to  kill  all  their  children,  so  that  they 
should  not  be  hampered  in  their  flight ;  of  their 
life  in  the  woods,  like  wild  beasts,  and  the  ignoble 
ferocity  of  their  ends.  Scarcely  less  sombre  read- 
ing is  the  account  of  how  they  were  hunted  down, 
and  of  the  wolfish  eagerness  the  borderers  showed 
to  massacre  the  women  and  children  as  well  as 
the  men. 

3—8 


C20  THE   II 'I. \XIXG  OF 

and  brand,  cleared  his  patch  of  corn  land  in 
the  forest,  close  to  some  clear,  swift-flowing 
stream,  and  by  his  skill  with  the  rifle  won 
from  canebrake  and  woodland  the  game  on 
which  his  family  lived  until  the  first  crop 
was  grown. 

A  few  of  the  more  reckless  and  foolhardy, 
and  more  especially  of  those  who  were 
either  merely  hunters  and  not  farmers,  or 
else  who  were  of  doubtful  character,,  lived 
entirely  by  themselves ;  but,  as  a  rule,  each 
knot  of  settlers  was  gathered  together  into 
a  little  stockaded  hamlet,  called  a  fort  or 
station.  This  system  of  defensive  villages 
was  very  distinctive  of  pioneer  backwoods 
life,  and  was  unique  of  its  kind ;  without  it 
the  settlement  of  the  west  and  southwest 
would  have  been  indefinitely  postponed.  In 
no  other  way  could  the  settlers  have  com- 
bined for  defence.  while  yet  retaining  their 
individual  ownership  of  the  land.  The 
Watauga  forts  or  palisaded  villages  were 
of  the  usual  kind,  the  cabins  and  block- 
houses connected  by  a  heavy  loop-holed 
picket.  They  were  admirably  adapted  for 
defence  with  the  rifle.  As  there  was  no 
moat,  there  was  a  certain  danger  from  an 
attack  with  fire  unless  water  was  stored 
within ;  and  it  was  of  course  necessary  to 
guard  carefully  against  surprise.  But  to 
open  assault  they  were  practically  im- 
pregnable, and  they  therefore  offered  a  sure 
haven  of  refuge  to  the  settlers  in  case  of  an 
Indian  inroad.  In  time  of  peace,  the  in- 


THE  WEST  221 

habitants  moved  out,  to  live  in  their  isolated 
log-cabins  and  till  the  stump-dotted  clear- 
ings. Trails  led  through  the  dark  forests 
from  one  station  to  another,  as  well  as  to 
the  settled  districts  beyond  the  mountains ; 
and  at  long  intervals  men  drove  along  them 
bands  of  pack-horses,  laden  with  the  few 
indispensable  necessaries  the  settlers  could 
not  procure  by  their  own  labor.  The  pack- 
horse  was  the  first,  and  for  a  long  time  the 
only,  method  of  carrying  on  trade  in  the 
backwoods;  and  the  business  of  the  packer 
was  one  of  the  leading  frontier  industries. 
The  settlers  worked  hard  and  hunted 
hard,  and  lived  both  plainly  and  roughly. 
Their  cabins  were  roofed  with  clapboards, 
or  huge  shingles,  split  from  the  log  with 
maul  and  wedge,  and  held  in  place  by  heavy 
stones,  or  by  poles ;  the  floors  were  made 
of  rived  puncheons,  hewn  smooth  on  one 
surface ;  the  chimney  was  outside  the  hut, 
made  of  rock  when  possible,  otherwise  of 
logs  thickly  plastered  with  clay  that  was 
strengthened  with  hogs'  bristles  or  deer 
hair;  in  the  great  fire-place  was  a  tongue 
on  which  to  hang  pot-hooks  and  kettle ;  the 
unglazed  window  had  a  wooden  shutter,  and 
the  door  was  made  of  great  clapboards.15 
The  men  made  their  own  harness,  farming 
implements,  and  domestic  utensils ;  and,  as 
in  every  other  community  still  living  in  the 

15  In  "  American  Pioneers,"  II.,  445,  is  a  full 
description  of  the  better  sort  of  backwoods  log- 
cabin. 


222  THE   WINNING  OF 

heroic  age,  the  smith  was  a  person  of  the 
utmost  importance.  There  was  but  one 
thing  that  all  could  have  in  any  quantity, 
and  that  \vas  land ;  each  had  all  of  this  he 
wanted  for  the  taking, — or  if  it  was  known 
to  belong  to  the  Indians,  he  got  its  use  for 
a  few  trinkets  or  a  flask  of  whisky.  A  few  of 
the  settlers  still  kept  some  of  the  Presby- 
terian austerity  of  character,  as  regards 
amusements  ;  but,  as  a  rule,  they  were  fond 
of  horse-racing,  drinking,  dancing,  and 
fiddling.  The  corn-shuckings,  flax-pull- 
ings,  log-rollings  (when  the  felled  timber 
was  rolled  oil  the  clearings),  house-rais- 
ings, maple-sugar-boilings,  and  the  like 
were  scenes  of  boisterous  and  light-hearted 
merriment,  to  which  the  whole  neighbor- 
hood came,  for  it  was  accounted  an  insult 
if  a  man  was  not  asked  in  to  help  on  such 
occasions,  and  none  but  a  base  churl  would 
refuse  his  assistance.  The  backwoods  peo- 
ple had  to  front  peril  and  hardship  without 
stint,  and  they  loved  for  the  moment  to  leap 
out  of  the  bounds  of  their  narrow  lives  and 
taste  the  coarse  pleasures  that  are  always 
dear  to  a  strong,  simple,  and  primitive  race. 
Yet  underneath  their  moodiness  and  their 
fitful  light-heartedness  lay  a  spirit  that  when 
roused  was  terrible  in  its  ruthless  and  stern 
intensity  of  purpose. 

Such  were  the  settlers  of  the  \Yatauga, 
the  founders  of  the  commonwealth  that 
grew  into  the  State  of  Tennessee,  who  early 
in  1772  decided  that  they  must  form  some 


THE  WEST  223 

kind  of  government  that  would  put  down 
wrong-doing  and  work  equity  between  man 
and  man.  Two  of  their  number  already 
towered  head  and  shoulders  above  the  rest 
in  importance  and  merit  especial  mention ; 
for  they  were  destined  for  the  next  thirty 
years  to  play  the  chief  parts  in  the  history 
of  that  portion  of  the  Southwest  which 
largely  through  their  own  efforts  became 
the  Slate  of  Tennessee.  These  two  men. 
neither  of  them  yet  thirty  years  of  age, 
were  John  Sevier  and  James  Robertson.16 
Robertson  first  came  to  the  Watauga 
early  in  I770.17  He  had  then  been  married 
for  two  years,  and  had  been  "  learning  his 
letters  and  to  spell  "  from  his  well-educated 
wife ;  for  he  belonged  to  a  backwoods 
family,  even  poorer  than  the  average,  and 
he  had  not  so  much  as  received  the  rudi- 
mentary education  that  could  be  acquired 

16  Both  were  born  in  Virginia;    Sevier  in  Rock- 
ingham  County,  September  23,  1745,  and  Robert- 
son in  Brunswick  County,  June  28,   1742. 

17  Putnam,  p.  21  ;    who,  however,  is  evidently  in 
error  in  thinking  he  was  accompanied  by  Boone, 
as   the   latter    was   then   in    Kentucky.     A    recent 
writer  revives  this  error  in  another  form,  stating 
that    Robertson   accompanied    Boone   to   the   Wa- 
tauga in   1769.     Boone,  however,  left  on  his  trav- 
els on  May  I,  1/69,  and  in  June  was  in  Kentucky; 
whereas    Putnam    not   only   informs   us   definitely 
that  Robertson  went  to  the  Watauga  for  the  first 
time  in  1770,  but  also  mentions  that  when  he  went 
his   eldest   son   was  already  born,   and   this   event 
took   place    in   June,    1769,    so    that    it    is    certain 
Boone  and  Robertson  were  not  together. 


THE  WIN  XIX  G  OF 


224 

at  an  "old-field"  school.  But  he  was  a 
man  of  remarkable  natural  powers,  above 
the  medium  height,18  with  wiry,  robust 
form,  light-blue  eyes,  fair  complexion,  and 
dark  hair;  his  somewhat  sombre  face  had 
in  it  a  look  of  self-contained  strength  that 
made  it  impressive;  and  his  taciturn,  quiet, 
masterful  way  of  dealing  with  men  and  af- 
fairs, together  with  his  singular  mixture  of 
cool  caution  and  most  adventurous  daring, 
gave  him  an  immediate  hold  even  upon  such 
lawless  spirits  as  those  of  the  border.  He 
was  a  mighty  hunter;  but.  unlike  Boone, 
hunting  and  exploration  were  to  him  sec- 
ondary affairs,  and  he  came  to  examine  the 
lands  with  the  eye  of  a  pioneer  settler.  He 
intended  to  have  a  home  where  he  could 
bring  up  his  familv,  and,  if  possible,  he 
wished  to  find  rich  lands,  with  good  springs, 
whereto  he  might  lead  those  of  his  neigh- 
bors who,  like  himself,  eagerly  desired  to 
ri>e  in  the  world,  and  to  provide  for  the 
well-being  of  their  children. 

To  find  such  a  countrv  Robertson,  then 
dwelling  in  North  Carolina,  decided  to  go 
across  the  mountains.  lie  started  off  alone 
on  his  exploring  expedition,  ritle  in  hand, 
and  a  good  horse  under  him.  1  fe  crossed 
the  ranges  that  continue  northward  the 
Great  Smokies,  and  spent  the  summer  in 

"  The  description  of  his  looks  i.s  taken  from  the 
statements  of  his  rle-.em'ant-.  and  of  the  grand- 
children of  his  contemporaries. 


THE  WEST 


225 


the  beautiful  hill  country  where  the  springs 
of  the  western  waters  flowed  from  the 
ground.  He  had  never  seen  so  lovely  a 
land.  The  high  valleys,  through  which  the 
currents  ran,  were  hemmed  in  by  towering 
mountain  walls,  with  cloud-capped  peaks. 
The  fertile  loam  forming  the  bottoms  was 
densely  covered  with  the  growth  of  the 
primaeval  forest,  broken  here  and  there  by 
glade-like  openings,  where  herds  of  game 
grazed  on  the  tall,  thick  grass. 

Robertson  was  well  treated  by  the  few 
settlers,  and  stayed  long  enough  to  raise  a 
crop  of  corn,  the  stand-by  of  the  backwoods 
pioneer ;  like  every  other  hunter,  explorer, 
Indian  fighter,  and  wilderness  wanderer,  he 
lived  on  the  game  he  shot,  and  the  small 
quantity  of  maize  he  was  able  to  carry  with 
him.19  In  the  late  fall,  however,  when  re- 
crossing  the  mountain  on  his  way  home 
through  the  trackless  forests,  both  game 
and  corn  failed  him.  He  lost  his  way,  was 
forced  to  abandon  his  horse  among  impass- 
able precipices,  and  finally  found  his  rifle 
useless  owing  to  the  powder  having  become 
soaked.  For  fourteen  days  he  lived  almost 
wholly  on  nuts  and  wild  berries,,  and  was  on 
the  point  of  death  from  starvation,  when  he 
met  two  hunters  on  horseback,  who  fed  him 
and  let  him  ride  their  horses  by  turns,  and 
brought  him  safely  to  his  home. 

"The  importance  of  maize  to  the  western  set- 
tler is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  our  tongue  it  has 
now  monopolized  the  title  of  corn. 


226  THE   in XX ING  OP 

Such  hardships  were  little  more  than 
matter-of-course  incidents  in  a  life  like  his ; 
and  he  at  once  prepared  to  set  out  with  his 
family  for  the  new  land.  His  accounts 
greatly  excited  his  neighbors,  and  sixteen 
families  made  ready  to  accompany  him. 
The  little  caravan  started,  under  Robert- 
son's guidance,  as  soon  as  the  ground  had 
dried  after  the  winter  rains  in  the  spring 
of  1 77 1.20  They  travelled  in  the  usual  style 
of  backwoods  emigrants  ;  the  men  on  foot, 
rifle  on  shoulder,  the  elder  children  driving 
the  lean  cows,  while  the  women,  the  young 
children,  and  the  few  household  goods,  and 
implements  of  husbandry,  were  carried  on 
the  backs  of  the  pack-horses  ;  for  in  settling 
the  backwoods  during  the  last  century,  the 
pack-horse  played  the  same  part  that  in  the 
present  century  was  taken  by  the  canvas- 
covered  emigrant  wagon,  the  white-topped 
"  prairie  schooner." 

Once  arrived  at  the  Watauga,  the  Caro- 
lina new-comers  mixed  readily  with  the  few 
Virginians  already  on  the  ground  ;  and  Rob- 
ertson speedily  became  one  of  the  leading 
men  in  the  little  settlement.  On  an  island 
in  the  river  he  built  a  house  of  logs  with 
the  bark  still  on  them  on  the  outside,  though 
hewed  smooth  within  ;  tradition  says  that 
it  was  the  largest  in  the  settlement.  Cer- 
tainly it  belonged  to  the  better  class  of 

"  Putnam,  p.  24.  says  it  \vas  after  the  battle  of 
the  Great  Alamanoe,  \vliirh  took  place  May  16, 
1771.  An  untrustworthy  tradition  says  March. 


THE  WEST  227 

backwoods  cabins,  with  a  loft  and  several 
rooms,  a  roof  of  split  saplings,  held  down 
by  weighty  poles,  a  log  veranda  in  front, 
and  a  huge  fire-place,  of  sticks  or  stones 
laid  in  clay,  wherein  the  pile  of  blazing  logs 
roared  loudly  in  cool  weather.  The  furni- 
ture was  probably  precisely  like  that  in 
other  houses  of  the  class ;  a  rude  bed,  table, 
settee,  and  chest  of  drawers,  a  spinning- 
jenny,  and  either  three-legged  stools  or  else 
chairs  with  backs  and  seats  of  undressed 
deer  hides.  Robertson's  energy  and  his  re- 
markable natural  ability  brought  him  to  the 
front  at  once,  in  every  way ;  although,  as 
already  said,  he  had  much  less  than  even 
rhe  average  backwoods  education,  for  he 
could  not  read  when  he  was  married,  while 
most  of  the  frontiersmen  could  not  only 
read  but  also  write,  or  at  least  sign  their 
names.21 

Sevier,  who  came  to  the  Watauga  early 
in  1772,  nearly  a  year  after  Robertson  and 
his  little  colony  had  arrived,  differed 
widely  from  his  friend  in  almost  every  re- 
spect save  highmindedness  and  dauntless, 
invincible  courage.  He  was  a  gentleman  by 
birth  and  breeding,  the  son  of  a  Huguenot 
who  had  settled  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley. 

m  In  examining  numerous  original  drafts  of 
petitions  and  the  like,  signed  by  hundreds  of  the 
original  settlers  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  I 
have  been  struck  by  the  small  proportion — not 
much  over  three  or  four  per  cent,  at  the  outside — 
of  men  who  made  their  mark  instead  of  signing. 


228  THE   tt'INXI.VG  OP 

He  had  received  a  fair  education,  and 
though  never  fond  of  books,  he  was  to  the 
end  of  his  days  an  interested  and  intelligent 
observer  of  men  and  things, both  in  America 
and  Europe.  He  corresponded  on  intimate 
and  equal  terms  with  Madison,  Franklin, 
and  others  of  our  most  polished  statesmen ; 
while  Robertson's  letters,  when  he  had 
finally  learned  to  write  them  himself,  were 
almost  as  remarkable  for  their  phenom- 
enally bad  spelling  as  for  their  shrewd  com- 
mon-sense and  homely,  straightforward 
honesty.  Sevier  was  a  very  handsome  man  ; 
during  his  lifetime  he  was  reputed  the 
handsomest  in  Tennessee.  He  was  tall,  fair- 
skinned,  blue-eyed,  brown-haired,  of  slender 
build,  with  erect,  military  carriage  and  com- 
manding bearing,  his  lithe,  finely  propor- 
tioned figure  being  well  set  off  by  the  hunt- 
ing-shirt which  he  almost  invariably  wore. 
From  his  French  forefathers  he  inherited 
a  gay,  pleasure-loving  temperament,  that 
made  him  the  must  charming  of  compan- 
ions. His  manners  were  polished  and  easy, 
and  he  had  great  natural  dignity.  Over 
the  backwoodsmen  he  exercised  an  almost 
unbounded  influence,  due  as  much  to  his 
ready  tact,  invariable  courtesy,  and  lavish, 
generous  hospitality,  as  to  the  skill  and 
dashing  prowess  which  made  h;m  the  most 
renowned  Indian  fighter  of  the  Southwest. 
He  had  an  eager,  impetuous  nature,  and  was 
very  ambitious,  bein^  almost  as  fond  of 


THE  WEST  229 

popularity  as  of  Indian-fighting.22  He  was 
already  married,  and  the  father  of  two 
children,  when  he  came  to  the  Watauga, 
and,  like  Robertson,  was  seeking  a  new  and 
better  home  for  his  family  in  the  west.  So 
far,  his  life  had  been  as  uneventful  as  that 
of  any  other  spirited  young  borderer ;  his 
business  had  been  that  of  a  frontier  Indian 
trader ;  he  had  taken  part  in  one  or  two  un- 
important Indian  skirmishes.23  Later  he 
was  commissioned  by  Lord  Dunmore  as  a 
captain  in  the  Virginia  line. 

"  See,  in  the  collection  of  the  Tenn.  Hist.  Soc., 

at  Nashville,  the  MS.  notes  containing  an  account 
of  Sevier,  given  by  one  of  the  old  settlers  named 
Hillsman.  Hillsman  especially  dwells  on  the  skill 
with  which  Sevier  could  persuade  the  backwoods- 
men to  come  round  to  his  own  way  of  thinking, 
while  at  the  same  time  making  them  believe  that 
they  were  acting  on  their  own  ideas,  and  acids — • 
"  whatever  he  had  was  at  the  service  of  his  friends 
and  for  the  promotion  of  the  Sevier  party,  which 
sometimes  embraced  nearly  all  the  population." 

23  Mr.  James  Gilmore  (Edmund  Kirke),  in  his 
"  John  Sevier,"  makes  some  assertions,  totally  un- 
backed by  proof,  about  his  hero's  alleged  feats. 
when  only  a  boy,  in  the  wars  between  the  Vir- 
ginians and  the  Indians.  He  gives  no  dates,  but 
can  only  refer  to  Pontiac's  war.  Sevier  was  then 
eighteen  years  old,  but  nevertheless  is  portrayed, 
among  other  things,  as  leading  "  a  hundred  hardy 
borderers"  into  the  Indian  country,  burning  their 
villages  and  "  often  defeating  bodies  of  five  times 
his  own  numbers."  These  statements  are  supported 
by  no  better  authority  than  traditions  gathered  a 
century  and  a  quarter  after  the  event,  and  must  be 
dismissed  as  mere  fable.  They  show  a  total  and 
rather  amusing  ignorance  not  only  of  the  conditions 


23 o  THE   WINNING  OF 

Such  were  Scvicr  and  Robertson,  the 
leaders  in  the  little  frontier  outpost  of  civ- 
ilization that  was  struggling  to  maintain  it  - 
self  on  the  Watauga;  and  these  two  men 
afterwards  proved  themselves  to  he,  witli 
the  exception  of  George  Rogers  Clark,  the 
greatest  of  the  first  generation  of  Trans- 
Alleghany  pioneers. 

Their  followers  were  worthy  of  them. 
All  alike  were  keenly  alive  to  the  disad- 
vantages of  living  in  a  community  where 

of  Indian  warfare,  but  also  of  the  history  of  the 
particular  contest  referred  to.  Mr.  Gilmore  for- 
get- that  \ve  have  numerous  historic?  of  the  war 
in  which  Sevier  is  supposed  to  have  distinguished 
hini-clf.  and  that  in  not  one  of  them  is  there  a 
syllable  hinting  at  what  he  says.  Neither  Sevier 
nr>r  any  one  else  ever  with  a  hundred  men  de- 
feated "five  times  his  number"  of  northwestern 
Indian-;  in  the  woods;  and  during  Sevier' s  life  in 
Virginia,  the  only  defeat  ever  suffered  by  such  a 
body  of  Indians  was  at  Bushy  Run,  when  Bouquet 
pained  a  hard-fought  victory.  After  the  end  of 
Pontiac's  war  there  was  no  expedition  of  import- 
ance undertaken  by  Virginians  against  the  Indians 
until  17/4,  and  of  Pontiac's  war  it-elf  we  have  full 
knowledge.  Sevier  was  neither  leader  nor  par- 
ticipant in  any  such  marvellous  feats  as  Mr.  Gil- 
more  de-cribe-- ;  <>n  the  contrary,  the  ^kirmnhes 
in  which  he  may  have  been  engaged  were  of  such 
small  importance  thai  no  record  remains  concern- 
ing them.  Had  Sevier  done  any  Mich  deeds  all 
ihe  colonies  would  have  rung  with  his  exploit-, 
instead  of  their  remaining  utterly  unknown  for 
a  hundred  and  twenty-five  years.  It  is  extraordi- 
nary that  any  author  should  be  willing  to  put  his 
name  to  ^uch  reckles-  mi--tntemenK  in  what  pur- 
ports to  be  a  history  and  not  a  book  of  fiction. 


THE   WEST 


231 


there  was  neither  law  nor  officer  to  enforce 

it.  Accordingly,  with  their  characteristic 
capacity  for  combination,  so  striking  as  ex- 
isting together  with  the  equally  characteris- 
tic capacity  for  individual  self-help,  the 
settlers  determined  to  organize  a  govern- 
ment of  their  own.  They  promptly  put 
their  resolution  into  effect  early  in  the 
spring  of  1772,  Robertson  being  apparently 
the  leader  in  the  movement. 

They  decided  to  adopt  written  articles  of 
agreement,  by  which  their  conduct  should 
be  governed ;  and  these  were  known  as  the 
Articles  of  the  Watauga  Association.  They 
formed  a  written  constitution,  the  first  ever 
adopted  west  of  the  mountains,  or  by  a 
community  composed  of  American-born 
freemen.  It  is  this  fact  of  the  early  inde- 
pendence and  self-government  of  the  set- 
tlers along  the  head-waters  of  the  Tennessee 
that  gives  to  their  history  its  peculiar  im- 
portance. They  were  the  first  men  of 
American  birth  to  establish  a  free  and  in- 
dependent community  on  the  continent. 
Even  before  this  date,  there  had  been 
straggling  settlements  of  Pennsylvanians 
and  Virginians  along  the  head-waters  of 
the  Ohio ;  but  these  settlements  remained 
mere  parts  of  the  colonies  behind  them, 
and  neither  grew  into  a  separate  community, 
nor  played  a  distinctive  part  in  the  growth 
of  the  west. 

The  first  step  taken  by  the  Watauga 
settlers,  when  they  had  determined  to  or- 


232 


THE   WINNING  OF 


ganize,24  was  to  meet  in  general  convention, 
holding  a  kind  of  folk-thing,  akin  to  the 
New  England  town-meeting.  They  then 
elected  a  representative  assembly,  a  small 
parliament  or  "  witanagemot,"  which  met 
at  Robertson's  station.  Apparently  the  free- 
men of  each  little  fort  or  palisaded  village, 
each  blockhouse  that  was  the  centre  of  a 
group  of  detached  cabins  and  clearings, 
sent  a  member  to  this  first  frontier  legisla- 
ture.25 It  consisted  of  thirteen  representa- 
tives, who  proceeded  to  elect  from  their 
number  five — among  them  Sevier  and  Rob- 
ert.-on — to  form  a  committee  or  court,  which 
should  carry  on  the  actual  business  of  gov- 
ernment, and  should  exercise  both  judicial 
and  executive  functions.  This  court  had  a 
clerk  and  a  sheriff,  or  executive  officer,  who 
respectively  recorded  and  enforced  their 
decrees. 

The  five  members  of  this  court,  who  are 
sometimes  referred  to  as  arbitrators  and 
sometimes  as  commissioners,  had  entire  con- 
trol of  all  matters  affecting  the  common 
weal;  and  all  affairs  in  controversy  were 
settled  by  the  decision  of  a  majority.  They 
elected  one  of  their  number  as  chairman,  he 
being  also  ex-officio  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee of  thirteen  ;  and  all  their  proceedings 

"  The    \Yatatiga    settlers   and    those   of   Carter's 
Ya'lcy  \vere  the  first  to  organize;    the  Nolichucky 

]ici>p'c  came  in  later. 
''  Putnam,  30. 


THE  WEST  233 

were  noted  for  the  prudence  and  modera- 
tion with  which  they  behaved  in  their  some- 
what anomalous  position.  They  were  care- 
ful to  avoid  embroiling  themselves  with  the 
neighboring  colonial  legislatures ;  and  in 
dealing  with  non-residents  they  made  them 
give  bonds  to  abide  by  their  decision,  thus 
avoiding  any  necessity  of  proceeding  against 
their  persons.  On  behalf  of  the  community 
itself,  they  were  not  only  permitted  to  con- 
trol its  internal  affairs,  but  also  to  secure 
lands  by  making  treaties  with  a  foreign 
power,  the  Indians ;  a  distinct  exercise  of 
the  right  of  sovereignty.  They  heard  and 
adjudicated  all  cases  of  difference  between 
the  settlers  themselves ;  and  took  measures 
for  the  common  safety.  In  fact  the  dwel- 
lers, in  this  little  out-lying  frontier  common- 
wealth, exercised  the  rights  of  full  state- 
hood for  a  number  of  years ;  establishing  in 
true  American  style  a  purely  democratic 
government  with  representative  institutions, 
in  which,  under  certain  restrictions,  the  will 
of  the  majority  was  supreme,  while,  never- 
theless, the  largest  individual  freedom,  and 
the  utmost  liberty  of  individual  initiative 
were  retained.  The  framers  showed  the 
American  predilection  for  a  written  con- 
stitution or  civil  compact ;  and,  what  was 
more  important,  they  also  showed  the  com- 
mon-sense American  spirit  that  led  them  to 
adopt  the  scheme  of  government  which 
should  in  the  simplest  way  best  serve  their 


234  THE  WINNING  OF 

needs,   without  bothering  their  heads  over 
mere  high-sounding  abstractions.28 

The  court  or  committee  held  their  ses- 
sions at  stated  and  regular  times,  and  took 
the  law  of  Virginia  as  their  standard  for  de- 
cisions. They  saw  to  the  recording  of  deeds 
and  wills,  settled  all  questions  of  debate,  is- 
sued marriage  licenses,  and  carried  on  a 
most  vigorous  warfare  against  law-break- 
ers, especially  horse-thieves.27  For  six 
years  their  government  continued  in  full 
vigor;  then,  in  February,  1778,  North  Car- 
olina having  organized  Washington  County, 
which  included  ail  of  what  is  now  Tennes- 
see, the  governor  of  that  State  appointed 
justices  of  the  peace  and  militia  officers  for 
the  new  county,  and  the  old  system  came  to 
an  end.  But  Sevier,  Robertson,  and  their 
fellow-committeemen  were  all  members  of 
the  new  court,  and  continued  almost  with- 
out change  their  former  simple  system  of 
procedure  and  direct  and  expeditious 
methods  of  administering  justice;  as  jus- 

18  The  original  articles  of  the  \Vatauga  Associa- 
tion have  been  lost,  and  no  copies  are  extant.  All 
we  know  of  the  matter  is  derived  from  Haywood, 
Ramsey,  and  Putnam,  three  historians  to  whose 
praiseworthy  industry  Tennessee  owes  as  much  as 
K  mucky  docs  to  Marshall,  Butler,  and  Collins. 
Ramsey,  by  the  way,  choose^  rather  inappropriate 
adjectives  when  he  calls  the  government  "  pa- 
ternal and  patriarchal." 

"  A  very  good  account  of  this  government  is 
given  in  Allison's  Address,  pp.  5-8,  and  from  it 
the  following  examples  are  taken. 


THE  WEST  235 

tices  of  the  peace  they  merely  continued  to 
act  as  they  acted  while  arbitrators  of  the 
Watauga  Association,  and  in  their  sum- 
mary mode  of  dealing  with  evil-doers  paid 
a  good  deal  more  heed  to  the  essence  than 
to  the  forms  of  law.  One  record  shows 
that  a  horse-thief  was  arrested  on  Monday, 
tried  on  Wednesday,  and  hung  on  Friday  of 
the  same  week.  Another  deals  with  a  claim- 
ant who,  by  his  attorney,  moved  to  be  sworn 
into  his  office  of  clerk,  "  but  the  court  swore 
in  James  Sevier,  well  knowing  that  said 
Sevier  had  been  elected,"  and  being  evi- 
dently unwilling  to  waste  their  time  hearing 
a  contested  election  case  when  their  minds 
were  already  made  up  as  to  the  equity  of 
the  matter.  They  exercised  the  right  of 
making  suspicious  individuals  leave  the 
county.28  They  also  at  times  became 
censors  of  morals,  and  interfered  with 
straightforward  effectiveness  to  right 
wrongs  for  which  a  more  refined  and  elab- 
orate system  of  jurisprudence  would  have 
provided  only  cumbersome  and  inadequate 
remedies.  Thus  one  of  their  entries  is  to 
the  effect  that  a  certain  man  is  ordered  "  to 
return  to  his  family  and  demean  himself  as 
a  good  citizen,  he  having  admitted  in  open 

28  A  right  the  exercise  of  which  is  of  course  sus- 
ceptible to  great  abuse,  but,  nevertheless,  is  often 
absolutely  necessary  to  the  well-being  of  a  fron- 
tier community.  In  almost  every  case  where  I 
have  personally  known  it  exercised,  the  character 
of  the  individual  ordered  off  justified  the  act. 


236  THE   WINDING  'OF 

court  that  he  had  left  his  wife  and  took  up 
with  an-othcr  woman."  From  the  character 
of  the  judges  who  made  the  decision,  it  is 
safe  to  presume  that  the  delinquent  either 
obeyed  it  or  else  promptly  fled  to  the  In- 
dians for  safety."9  This  fleeing  to  the  In- 
dians, hy  the  way,  was  a  feat  often  per- 
formed by  the  worst  criminals — for  the  ren- 
egade, the  man  who  had  "  painted  his  face  " 
and  deserted  those  of  his  own  color,  was  a 
being  as  well  known  as  he  was  abhorred 
and  despised  on  the  border,  where  such  a 
deed  was  held  to  be  the  one  unpardonable 
crime. 

So  much  for  the  way  in  which  the  whites 
kept  order  among  themselves.  The  second 
part  ot  their  task,  the  adjustment  of  their 
relations  with  their  reel  neighbors,  was 
scarcely  less  important.  Early  in  1/72 
Virginia  made  a  treaty  with  the  Cherokee 
Nation,  which  established  as  the  boundary 
between  them  a  line  running  west  from 
White  Top  Mountain  in  latitude  36  30'. Ro 
Immediately  afterwards  the  agent ;n  of  the 
British  Government  among  the  Cherokees 
ordered  the  Watauga  settlers  to  instantly 
leave  their  lands.  They  defied  him.  and  re- 
fused to  move;  but  feeling  the  insecurity 
of  their  tenure  they  deputed  t\vo  com- 
missioners, of  whom  Roliert son  was  one, 
to  make  a  treaty  with  the  Cherokees.  This 

:"  Allison's  Address. 

''Ramsey,   109.     Putnam  says  36°  35'. 

"  Alexander  Cameron. 


THE  WEST  237 

was  successfully  accomplished,  the  In- 
dians leasing  to  the  associated  settlers  all 
the  lands  on  the  Watauga  waters  for  the 
space  of  eight  years,  in  consideration  of 
about  six  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
blankets,  paint,  muskets,  and  the  like.32  The 
amount  advanced  was  reimbursed  to  the 
men  advancing  it  by  the  sale  of  the  lands  in 
small  parcels  to  new  settlers,33  for  the  time 
of  the  lease.34 

After  the  lease  was  signed,  a  day  was  ap- 
pointed on  which  to  hold  a  great  race,  as 
well  as  wrestling-matches  and  other  sports, 
at  Watauga.  Not  only  many  whites  from 
the  various  settlements,  but  also  a  number 
of  Indians,  came  to  see  or  take  part  in  the 
sports ;  and  all  went  well  until  the  evening, 
when  some  lawless  men  from  Wolf  Hills, 
who  had  been  lurking  in  the  woods  round 

"  Haywood,  43. 

33  Meanwhile    Carters   Valley,   then   believed   to 
lie   in   Virginia,   had  been   settled   by  Virginians; 
the  Indians  robbed  a  trader's  store,  and  indem- 
nified   the    owners    by   giving   them    land,    at    the 
treaty  of  Sycamore  Shoals.     This  land  was  leaser! 
in  job  lots  to  settlers,  who,  however,  kept  posses- 
sion   without   paying   when    they   found   it   lay   in 
North  Carolina. 

34  A  similar  but  separate  lease  was  made  by  the 
settlers  on  the  Nolichucky,  who  acquired  a  beau- 
tiful and   fertile  valley  in  exchange  for  the  mer- 
chandise  carried   on    the   back   of   a    single   pack- 
horse.     Among  the  whites  themselves  transfers  of 
land   were  made  in   very   Dimple   forms,   and  con- 
veyed not  the  fee  simple  but  merely  the  grantor's 
claim. 


23 8  THE   rr7.YA7.YC  OF 

about,35  killed  an  Indian,  whereat  his  fel- 
lows left  the  spot  in  great  anger. 

The  settlers  now  saw  themselves  threat- 
ened with  a  bloody  and  vindictive  Indian 
war,  and  were  plunged  in  terror  and  des- 
pair ;  yet  they  were  rescued  by  the  address 
and  daring  of  Robertson.  Leaving  the 
others  to  build  a  formidable  palisaded  fort, 
under  the  leadership  of  Sevier,  Robertson 
set  off  alone  through  the  woods  and  fol- 
lowed the  great  war  trace  down  to  the 
Cherokee  towns.  His  mission  was  one  of 
the  greatest  peril,  for  there  was  imminent 
danger  that  the  justly  angered  savages 
would  take  his  life.  I'm  he  was  a  man  who 
never  rushed  heedlessly  into  purposeless 
peril,  and  never  flinched  from  a  danger 
which  there  was  an  object  in  encountering. 
His  quiet,  resolute  fearlessness  doubtless 
impressed  the  savages  to  whom  he  went, 
and  helped  to  save  his  life:  moreover,  the 
( 'herokees  knew  him,  trusted  his  word,  and 
were  probably  a  little  overawed  by  a  certain 
air  of  command  to  which  all  men  that  were 
thrown  in  contact  with  him  bore  witness. 
His  ready  tact  and  knowledge  of  Indian 
character  did  the  rest.  He  persuaded  the 
chiefs  and  warriors  to  meet  him  in  council, 

85  Haywood  say>  they  were  named  Crabtree; 
Putnam  hints  that  they  had  ]<~,<t  a  brother  when 
Roone'?  party  \va<  attacker!  and  his  son  killed; 
but  the  attack  on  Roone  did  not  take  place  tilj 
over  a  vear  after  this  time. 


HIE   WEST  239 

assured  them  of  the  anger  and  sorrow  with 
which  all  the  Watauga  people  viewed  the 
murder,  which  had  undoubtedly  been  com- 
mitted by  some  outsider,  and  wound  up  by 
declaring  his  determination  to  try  to  have 
the  wrong-doer  arrested  and  punished  ac- 
cording to  his  crime.  The  Indians,  already 
pleased  with  his  embassy,  finally  consented 
to  pass  the  affair  over  and  no'  take  ven- 
geance upon  innocent  men.  Then  the  dar- 
ing backwoods  diplomatist,  well  pleased 
with  the  success  of  his  mission,  returned  to 
the  anxious  little  community. 

The  incident,  taken  in  connection  with  the 
plundering  of  a  store  kept  by  two  whites 
in  Holston  Valley  at  the  same  time,  and  the 
unprovoked  assault  on  Boone's  party  in 
Powell's  Valley  a  year  later,  shows  the  ex- 
treme difficulty  of  preventing  the  worst  men 
of  each  color  from  wantonly  attacking  the 
innocent.  There  was  hardly  a  peaceable 
red  or  law-abiding  white  who  could  not 
recite  injuries  he  had  received  from  mem- 
bers of  the  opposite  race;  and  his  sense  of 
the  wrongs  he  had  suffered,  as  well  as  the 
general  frontier  indifference  to  crimes 
committed  against  others,  made  him  slow 
in  punishing  similar  outrages  by  his  own 

nanced  wrong  beir.g  done  the  Irr.iar;-.  and 
tried  to  atone  for  it.  but  they  never  hunted 
the  offenders  down  with  the  necessary 
mercilessness  that  alone  could  have  pre- 


2 40  THE  WINX1XG  OF 

vented  a  repetition  of  their  offences.  Sim- 
ilarly, but  to  an  even  greater  degree,  the 
good  Indians  shielded  the  bad.3'3 

For  several  years  after  they  made  their 
lease  with  the  Cherokees  the  men  of  the 
\Yatauga  were  not  troubled  by  their  In- 
dian neighbors.  They  had  to  fear  nothing 
more  than  a  drought,  a  freshet,  a  forest 
fire,  or  an  unusuallv  deep  snow-fall  if  hunt- 
ing on  the  mountains  in  mid-winter.  They 
lived  in  peace,  htm  ting  and  farming,  mar- 
rying, giving  in  marriage,  and  rearing  many 
healthy  children.  By  degrees  they  wrought 
out  of  the  stubborn  wilderness  comfortable 
homes,  filled  with  plentv.  The  stumps  were 
drawn  out  of  the  clearings,  and  other  grains 
were  sown  besides  corn.  Beef,  pork,  and 
mutton  were  sometimes  placed  on  the  table, 
besides  the  more  common  venison,  bear 
meat,  and  wild  turkev.  The  women  wove 
good  clothing,  the  men  procured  good 
food,  the  log-cabins,  if  liomelv  and  rough, 
yet  gave  ample  warmth  and  shelter.  The 
tamilies  throve,  and  life  was  happy,  even 
though  varied  with  toil,  danger,  and  hard- 
ship. Hooks  were  few,  and  it  was  some- 
years  before  the  first  church, —  Presbvterian, 

"Even    T.a    Rochffmicanld-T.inncourt     (S.    Q.O, 

\vlio     loathed     the     baekv/ood-men— fe\v     polished 

Knropcan*  hemp  ab!<-  to  see  any  hnt  the  tvpnNive 

•  !c    of    frontier    ehar-trter.    a    side    certr-mly    very 

t'ftrii   prominent.— a!-o   ^-icak-   of  the  tendency  of 

ir-t   Indians  to  ^o  to  the  frontier  to  rob  and 

murder. 


THE  WEST  241 

of  course, — was  started  in  the  region.37 
The  backwoods  Presbyterians  managed 
their  church  affairs  much  as  they  did  their 
civil  government :  each  congregation  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  choose  ground,  to 
build  a  meeting-house,  to  collect  the  min- 
ister's salary,  and  to  pay  all  charges,  by 
taxing  the  members  proportionately  for  the 
same,  the  committee  being  required  to  turn 
in  a  full  account,  and  receive  instructions, 
at  a  general  session  or  meeting  held  twice 
every  year.38 

Thus  the  Watauga  folk  were  the  first 
Americans  who,  as  a.  separate  body,  moved 
into  the  wilderness  to  hew  out  dwellings  for 
themselves  and  their  children,  trusting  only 
to  their  own  shrewd  heads,  stout  hearts, 
and  strong  arms,  unhelped  and  unhampered 
by  the  power  nominally  their  sovereign. 3r> 
They  built  up  a  commonwealth  which  had 
many  successors ;  they  showed  that  the 
frontiersmen  could  do  their  work  unas- 
sisted; for  they  not  only  proved  that  they 
were  made  of  stuff  stern  enough  to  hold  its 
own  against  outside  pressure  of  any  sort, 
but  they  also  made  it  evident  that  having 
won  the  land  they  were  competent  to  govern 
both  it  and  themselves.  They  were  the  first 

37  Salem  Church  was  founded  (Allison,  8)  in 
I777.  hy  Samuel  Doak.  a  Princeton  graduate,  and 
a  man  of  sound  learning,  who  also  at  the  same 
time  started  Washington  College,  the  first  real 
institution  of  learning  south  of  the  Alleghanies. 
"  Annals  of  Augusta,"  21. 

89  See  Appendix. 


242 


THE  WINNING  OF 


to  do  what  the  whole  nation  has  since  done. 
It  has  often  been  said  that  we  owe  all  our 
success  to  our  surroundings  ;  that  any  race 
with  our  opportunities  could  have  done  as 
well  as  we  have  done.  Undoubtedly  our 
opportunities  have  been  great ;  undoubtedly 
we  have  often  and  lamentably  failed  in 
taking  advantage  of  them.  But  what  na- 
tion ever  has  done  all  that  was  possible  with 
the  chances  offered  it?  The  Spaniards,  the 
Portuguese,  and  the  French,  not  to  speak  of 
the  Russians  in  Siberia,  have  all  enjoyed, 
and  yet  have  failed  to  make  good  use  of, 
the  same  advantages  which  we  have  turned 
to  good  account.  The  truth  is,  that  in 
starting  a  new  nation  in  a  new  country,  as 
we  have  done,  while  there  are  exceptional 
chances  to  be  taken  advantage  of,  there  are 
also  exceptional  dangers  and  difficulties  to 
be  overcome.  None  but  heroes  can  succeed 
wholly  in  the  work.  It  is  a  good  thing  for 
us  at  times  to  compare  what  we  have  done 
with  what  we  could  have  done,  had  we  been 
better  and  wiser;  it  mav  make  us  try  in  the 
future  to  raise  our  abilities  to  the  level  of 
our  opportunities.  Looked  at  absolutely,  we 
must  frankly  acknowledge  that  we  have  fallen 
very  far  short  indeed  of  the  high  ideal 
we  should  have  reached.  Looked  at  rela- 
tively, it  must  also  be  said  that  we  have  done 
better  than  any  other  nation  or  race  work- 
ing under  our  conditions.- 

Tffc'Wattfuga  settler^  outlined*  in  advapte 
the  nation's  work.     They  tamed  the  rugged 


THE   WEST 


243 


and  shaggy  wilderness,  they  bid  defiance  to 
outside  foes,  and  they  successfully  solved 
the.  difficult  problem  of  self-government. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
LORD  DUNMORE'S  WAR,  1774. 

ON  the  eve  of  the  Revolution,  in  1774. 
the  frontiersmen  had  planted  them- 
selves firmly  among  the  Alleghanies. 
Directly  west  of  them  lay  the  untenanted 
wilderness,  traversed  only  by  the  war  parties 
of  the  red  men.  and  the  hunting  parties  of 
both  reds  and  whites.  Xo  settlers  had  yet 
penetrated  it,  and  until  they  did  so  there 
could  be  within  its  borders  no  chance  of  race 
warfare,  unless  we  call  by  that  name  the  un- 
chronicled  and  unending  contest  in  which, 
now  and  then,  some  solitary  white  woods- 
man slew,  or  was  slain  by,  his  painted  foe. 
Jlut  in  the  southwest  and  the  northwest 
alike,  the  area  of  settlement  alreadv  touched 
the  home  lands  of  the  tribes,  and  hence  the 
horizon  was  never  quite  free  from  the  cloud 
of  threatening  Indian  war;  yet  for  the  mo- 
ment the  southwest  was  at  peace,  for  the 
Cherokees  were  still  friendly. 

Tt  was  in  the  northwest  that  the  danger  of 
collision  was  most  imminent  ;  for  there  the 
whites  and  Indians  had  wronged  one  an- 
other for  a  generation,  and  their  interests 
were,  at  the  time,  clashing  more  directly 

244 


THE  WEST  245 

than  ever.  Much  the  greater  part  of  the 
western  frontier  was  held  or  claimed  by 
Virginia,  whose  royal  governor  was,  at  the 
time,  Lord  Dunmore.  He  was  an  ambi- 
tious, energetic  man,  who  held  his  allegiance 
as  being  due  first  to  the  crown,  but  who, 
nevertheless,  was  always  eager  to  champion 
the  cause  of  Virginia  as  against  either  the 
Indians  or  her  sister  colonies.  The  short 
but  fierce  and  eventful  struggle  that  now 
broke  out  was  fought  wholly  by  Virginians, 
and  was  generally  known  by  the  name  of 
Lord  Dunmore's  war. 

Virginia,  under  her  charter,  claimed  that 
her  boundaries  ran  across  to  the  South 
Seas,  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  king  of 
Britain  had  graciously  granted  her  the  right 
to  take  so  much  of  the  continent  as  lay 
within  these  lines,  provided  she  could  win 
it  from  the  Indians,  French,  and  Spaniards ; 
and  provided  also  she  could  prevent  herself 
fron1.  being  ousted  by  the  crown,  or  by 
some  of  the  other  colonies.  A  number  of 
grants  had  been  made  with  the  like  large 
liberality,  and  it  was  found  that  they  some- 
times conflicted  with  one  another.  The  con- 
sequence was  that  while  the  boundaries 
were  well  marked  near  the  coast,  where  they 
separated  Virginia  from  the  long-settled  re- 
gions of  Maryland  and  North  Carolina, 
they  became  exceeding  vague  and  indefinite 
the  moment  they  touched  the  mountains. 
Even  at  the  south  this  produced  confusion, 
and  induced  the  settlers  of  the  upper  Hoi- 


246  THE   U'lXX'IXG  OP 

ston  to  consider  themselves  as  Virginians, 
not  Carolinians ;  but  at  the  north  the  effect 
was  still  more  confusing,  and  nearly  re- 
sulted in  bringing  about  an  intercolonial  war 
between  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia. 

The  Virginians  claimed  all  of  extreme 
western  Pennsylvania,  especially  Fort  Pitt 
and  the  valley  of  the  Monongahela,  and,  in 
1774,  proceeded  boldly  to  exercise  jurisdic- 
tion therein.1  Indeed  a  strong  party  among 
the  settlers  favored  the  Virginian  claim ; 
whereas  it  would  have  been  quite  impos- 
sible to  arouse  anywhere  in  Virginia  the 
least  feeling  in  support  of  a  similar  claim  on 
behalf  of  Pennsylvania.  The  borderers  had 
a  great  contempt  for  the  sluggish  and  timid 
government  of  the  Quaker  province,  which 
was  very  lukewarm  in  protecting  them  in 
their  rights — or,  indeed,  in  punishing  them 
when  they  did  wrong  to  others.  In  fact,  it 
seems  probable  that  they  would  have  de- 
clared for  Virginia  even  more  strongly,  had 
it  not  been  for  the  very  reason  that  their 
feeling  of  independence  was  so  surly  as  to 
make  them  suspicious  of  all  forms  of  con- 
trol ;  and  they  therefore  objected  almost  as 
much  to  Virginian  as  Pennsylvania!!  rule, 
and  regarded  the  outcome  of  the  dispute 
with  a  certain  indifference.2 

"  American  Archives,"  4th  series  Vol.  I.,  p. 
454.  Report  of  Perm.  Commissioners,  June  27, 

I/74- 

3  Man-land  was  also  involved,  along  her  \vestern 
frontier,  in  border  difficulties  with  her  neighbors; 


THE  WEST  247 

For  a  time  in  the  early  part  of  1774  there 
seemed  quite  as  much  likelihood  of  the  Vir- 
ginians being  drawn  into  a  fight  with  the 
Pennsylvanians  as  with  the  Shawnees. 
While  the  Pennsylvanian  commissioners 
were  trying  to  come  to  an  agreement  con- 
cerning the  boundaries  with  Lord  Dun- 
more,  the  representatives  of  the  two  con- 
testing parties  at  Fort  Pitt  were  on  the 
verge  of  actual  collision.  The  Earl's  agent 
in  the  disputed  territory  was  a  Captain  John 
Conolly,3  a  man  of  violent  temper  and  bad 
character.  He  embodied  the  men  favorable 
to  his  side  as  a  sort  of  Virginian  militia, 
with  which  he  not  only  menaced  both 
hostile  and  friendly  Indians,  but  the  adher- 
ents of  the  Pennsylvanian  government  as 
well.  He  destroyed  their  houses,  killed 
their  cattle  and  hogs,  impressed  their  horses, 
and  finally  so  angered  them  that  they  threat- 
ened to  take  refuge  in  the  stockade  at  Fort 
Pitt,  and  defy  him  to  open  war, — although 
even  in  the  midst  of  these  quarrels  with 
Conolly  their  loyalty  to  the  Quaker  State 
was  somewhat  doubtful.4 

The  Virginians  were  the  only  foes  the 
western  Indians  really  dreaded ;  for  their 

the  first  we  hear  of  the  Cresap  family  is  their 
having  engaged  in  a  real  skirmish  with  the  Penn- 
sylvanian authorities.  Sec  also  "  Am.  Arch.," 
IV.,  Vol.  I.,  547- 

"Am.  Arch.."  IV.,  Vol.  I.,  394,  449,  469,  etc. 
He  was  generally  called  Dr.  Conolly. 

*  See  do.,  463,  471,  etc.,  especially  St.  Glair's 
letters,  passim. 


248  THE   WINX1NG  OF 

backwoodsmen  were  of  warlike  temper, 
and  had  learned  to  fight  effectively  in  the 
forest.  The  Indians  styled  them  Long 
Knives;  or,  to  be  more  exact,  they  called 
them  collectively  the  "  Ijig  Knife."  °  There 
have  been  many  accounts  given  of  the  origin 
of  this  name,  some  ascribing  it  to  the  lung 
knives  worn  by  the  hunters  and  backwoods- 
men generally,  others  to  the  fact  that  some 
of  the  noted  \  irginian  fighters  in  their  early 
skirmishes  were  armed  with  swords.  At 
any  rale  the  title  was  accepted  by  all  the 
Indians  as  applying  to  their  most  deter- 
mined foes  among  the  colonists  ;  and  finally, 
after  we  had  become  a  nation,  was  extended 
so  as  to  apply  to  Americans  generally. 

The  war  that  now  ensued  was  not  gen- 
eral. The  Six  Nations,  as  a  whole,  took  no 
part  in  it,  while  Pennsylvania  also  stood 
aloof ;  indeed  at  one  time  it  was  proposed 
that  the  Pennsylvanians  and  Iroquois 
should  jointly  endeavor  to  mediate  between 
the  combatants.0  The  struggle  was  purely 
between  the  Virginians  and  the  northwest- 
ern Indians. 

The  interests  of  the  Virginians  and 
Pennsylvanians  conflicted  not  only  in  re- 
spect to  the  ownership  of  the  line,  but  also  in 

'  In  mo^t  of  the  original  treaties,  "  talk1;,"  etc., 
preserved  in  the  Archive-  of  the  State  Depart- 
ment, v.lu-rr  the  translation  is  exact,  the  word 
"  Big  Knife  "  i>  user.. 

"Letter  of  John  Pcnn,  June  28,  1774.  "  Am. 
Arch./'  IV.,  Vol.  IV. 


THE  WEST  249 

respect  to  the  policy  to  be  pursued  regarding 
the  Indians.  The  former  were  armed  col- 
onists, whose  interest  it  was  to  get  actual 
possession  of  the  soil  ;7  whereas  in  Penn- 
sylvania the  Indian  trade  was  very  import- 
ant and  lucrative,  and  the  numerous  traders 
to  the  Indian  towns  were  anxious  that  the 
redskins  should  remain  in  undisturbed  en- 
joyment of  their  forests,  and  that  no  white 
man  should  be  allowed  to  come  among 
them ;  moreover,  so  long  as  they  were  able 
to  make  heavy  profits,  they  were  utterly  in- 
different to  the  well-being  of  the  white  fron- 
tiersmen, and  in  return  incurred  the  suspi- 
cion and  hatred  of  the  latter.  The  Virgin- 
ians accused  the  traders  of  being  the  main 
cause  of  the  difficulty,8  asserting  that  they 
sometimes  incited  the  Indians  to  outrages, 
and  always,  even  in  the  midst  of  hostilities, 
kept  them  supplied  with  guns  and  ammuni- 
tion, and  even  bought  from  them  the  horses 
that  they  had  stolen  on  their  plundering  ex- 
peditions against  the  Virginian  border.9 
These  last  accusations  were  undoubtedly 
justified,  at  least  in  great  part,  by  the  facts. 
The  interests  of  the  white  trader  from 
Pennsylvania  and  of  the  white  settler  from 
Virginia  were  so  far  from  being  identical 
that  they  were  visually  diametrically  oppo- 
site. 

The  northwestern  Indians  had  been  nom- 

"  Am.  Archives,"  do.,  465. 
*  Do.,  722. 
9  Do.,  872. 


:5o  THE   WINNING  OF 

inally  at  peace  \vitb  the  whites  for  ten  years, 
since  the  close  of  Bouquet's  campaign.  But 
Bouquet  had  inflicted  a  very  slight  punish- 
ment upon  them,  and  in  concluding  an  un- 
satisfactory peace  had  caused  them  to  make 
but  a  partial  reparation  for  the  wrongs 
they  had  done.10  They  remained  haughty 
and  insolent,  irritated  rather  than  awed  by 
an  ineffective  chastisement,  and  their  young 
men  made  frequent  forays  on  the  frontier. 
Each  of  the  ten  years  of  nominal  peace  saw 
plenty  of  bloodshed.  Recently  they  had 
been  seriously  alarmed  by  the  tendency  of 
the  whites  to  encroach  on  the  great  hunt- 
ing-grounds south  of  the  Ohio;11  for  here 
and  there  hunters  or  settlers  were  already 
beginning  to  build  cabins  along  the  course 
of  that  stream.  The  cession  by  the  Iroquois 
of  these  same  hunting-grounds,  at  the  treaty 
of  Fort  Stanwix,  while  it  gave  the  whites 
a  colorable  title,  merely  angered  the  north- 
western Indians.  Half  a  century  earlier 
they  would  hardly  have  dared  dispute  the 
power  of  the  Six  Nations  to  do  what  they 
chose  with  any  land  that  could  be  reached 
by  their  war  parties;  but  in  1774  they  felt 
quite  able  to  hold  their  own  against  their 
old  oppressors,  and  had  no  intention  of  ac- 
quiescing in  any  arrangement  the  latter 

"  Am.  Arch.,"  IV.,  Vol.  I,  p.  1015. 
11  McAfee    MSS.     Tlii>    is    the    point   especially 
insisted  on  by  Cornstalk  in  his  speech  to  the  ad- 
venturers in    1773;    he  would  fight  before  seeing 
the  whites  drive  off  the  game. 


THE  WEST  251 

might  make,  unless  it  was  also  clearly  to 
their  own  advantage. 

In  the  decade  before  Lord  Dunmore's  war 
there  had  been  much  mutual  \vrong-doing 
between  the  northwestern  Indians  and  the 
Virginian  borderers ;  but  on  the  whole  the 
latter  had  occupied  the  position  of  being 
sinned  against  more  often  than  that  of  sin- 
ning. The  chief  offence  of  the  whites  was 
that  they  trespassed  upon  uninhabited 
lands,  which  they  forthwith  proceeded  to 
cultivate,  instead  of  merely  roaming  over 
them  to  hunt  the  game  and  butcher  one 
another.  Doubtless  occasional  white  men 
would  murder  an  Indian  if  they  got  a 
chance,  and  the  traders  almost  invariably 
cheated  the  tribesmen.  But  as  a  whole  the 
traders  were  Indian  rather  than  white  in 
their  sympathies,  and  the  whites  rarely 
made  forays  against  their  foes  avowedly 
for  horses  and  plunder,  while  the  Indians 
on  their  side  were  continually  indulging  in 
such  inroads.  Every  year  parties  of  young 
red  warriors  crossed  the  Ohio  to  plunder 
the  outlying  farms,  burn  down  the  build- 
ings, scalp  the  inmates,  and  drive  off  the 
horses.12  Year  by  year  the  exasperation  of 
the  borderers  grew  greater  and  the  tale  of 
the  wrongs  they  had  to  avenge  longer.13 

"In  the  McAfee  MSS.,  as  already  quoted,  there 
is  an  account  of  the  Shawnee  war  party,  whom 
the  McAfees  encountered  in  1773  returning  from 
a  successful  horse-stealing  expedition. 

11 "  Am.  Archives,"  IV.,  Vol.  I,  872.     Dunmore 


252  THE   WINXIXG  OF 

Occasionally  they  took  a  brutal  and  ill- 
judged  vengeance,  which  usually  fell  on  in- 
nocent Indians,14  and  raised  up  new  foes 
for  the  whites.  The  savages  grew  contin- 
ually more  hostile,  and  in  the  fall  of  1773 
their  attacks  became  so  frequent  that  it  was 
evident  a  general  outbreak  was  at  hand ; 
eleven  people  were  murdered  in  the  county 
of  Fincastle  alone.13  The  Shawnees  were 
the  leaders  in  all  these  outrages  ;  but  the 
outlaw  bands,  such  as  the  Mingos  and 
Cherokees,  were  as  bad,  and  parties  of 
Wyandots  and  Delawares,  as  well  as  of  the 
various  Miami  and  Wabash  tribes,  joined 
them. 

Thus  the  spring-  of  1774  opened  with 
every  thing  ripe  for  an  explosion.  The  Vir- 
ginian borderers  were  fearfully  exasperated, 
and  ready  to  take  vengeance  upon  anv  In- 
dians, whether  peaceful  or  hostile ;  while 
the  Shawnees  and  Mingos,  on  their  side, 
were  arrogant  and  overbearing,  and  yet 
alarmed  at  the  continual  advance  of  the 
whites.  The  headstrong  rashnes>  of  Con- 
oily,  who  was  acting  as  Lord  Dunmore's 
lieutenant  on  the  border,  and  who  was 

in  his  <pccch  enumerate-,  IQ  men.  women,  an<I 
children  who  had  been  killed  by  the  Indiana  in 
1771,  '~2.  ami  '73.  and  these.  \vere  hut  a  small 
fraction  of  the  whole.  "  ThN  wa>  before  a  drop 
of  Shawnee  blood  was  shed." 

"  Trans-Allegriany  Pioneers,"  p.  262,  gives  an 
example  that  happened  in  1772. 

"  Am.  Archives,"  IV.,  Vol.  I.  Letter  of  Col.. 
Wm.  Preston,  Aug.  13,  1774. 


THE  WEST 


253 


equally  willing  to  plunge  into  a  war  with 
Pennsylvania  or  the  Shawnees,  served  as  a 
firebrand  to  ignite  this  mass  of  tinder.  The 
borderers  were  anxious  for  a  war;  and 
Lord  Dunmore  was  not  inclined  to  baulk 
them.  He  was  ambitious  of  glory,  and 
probably  thought  that  in  the  midst  of  the 
growing  difficulties  between  the  mother 
country  and  the  colonies,  it  would  be  good 
policy  to  distract  the  Virginians'  minds  by 
an  Indian  war,  which,  if  he  conducted  it  to 
a  successful  conclusion,  might  strengthen 
his  own  position.10 

18  Many  local  historians,  including  Brantz  Mayer 
(Logan  and  Cresap,  p.  85),  ascribe  to  the  earl 
treacherous  motives.  Brantz  Mayer  puts  it  thus : 
"  It  was  probably  Lord  Dunmore' s  desire  to  incite 
a  war  which  would  arouse  and  band  the  savages 
of  the  west,  so  that  in  the  anticipated  struggle 
with  the  united  colonies  the  British  home-interest 
might  ultimately  avail  itself  of  these  children  of 
the  forest  as  ferocious  and  formidable  allies  in 
the  onslaught  on  the  Americans."  This  is  much 
too  futile  a  theory  to  need  serious  discussion. 
The  war  was  of  the  greatest  advantage  to  the 
American  cause ;  for  it  kept  the  northwestern  In- 
dians off  our  hands  for  the  first  two  years  of  the 
Revolutionary  struggle ;  and  had  Lord  Dunmore 
been  the  far-seeing  and  malignant  being  that  this 
theory  supposes,  it  would  have  been  impossible  for 
him  not  also  to  foresee  that  such  a  result  was  ab- 
solutely inevitable.  There  is  no  reason  whatever 
to  suppose  that  he  was  not  doing  his  best  for  the 
Virginians;  he  deserved  their  gratitude;  and  he 
got  it  for  the  time  being.  The  accusations  of 
treachery  against  him  were  afterthoughts,  and 
must  be  set  down  to  mere  vulgar  rancor,  unless, 
at  least,  some  faint  shadow  of  proof  is  advanced. 


254  THE  WINNING  OF 

There  were  on  the  border  at  the  moment 
three  or  four  men  whose  names  are  so  inti- 
mately bound  up  with  the  history  of  this 
war,  that  they  deserve  a  brief  mention.  One 
was  Michael  Cresap,  a  Maryland  frontiers- 
man, who  had  come  to  the  banks  of  the  Ohio 
with  the  purpose  of  making  a  home  for  his 
family.17  lie  was  of  the  regular  pioneer 
type;  a  good  woodsman,  sturdy  and  brave, 
a  fearless  fighter,  devoted  to  his  friends  and 
his  country;  but  also,  when  his  blood  was 
heated,  and  his  savage  instincts  fairly  roused, 
inclined  to  regard  any  red  man,  whether  hos- 
tile or  friendly,  as  a  being  who  should  be 
slain  on  sight.  Nor  did  he  condemn  the  bru- 
tal deeds  done  by  others  on  innocent  Indians. 

The  next  was  a  man  named  Greathouse, 
of  whom  it  is  enough  to  know  that,  together 
with  certain  other  men  whose  names  have 
for  the  most  part,  by  a  merciful  chance,  been 

When  the  Revolutionary  war  broke  out,  however, 
the  earl,  undoubtedly,  like  so  many  other  British 
officials,  advocated  the  tno-t  outrageous  measures 
to  put  down  the  insurgent  colonists. 

See  Brantz  Mayer,  ]>.  >%.  for  a  very  proper 
attack  on  those  historians  who  stigmatize  as  land- 
jobbers  and  speculators  tin-  perfectly  honest  set- 
tlers. who=e  encroachments  on  the  Indian  hunt- 
ing-grounds were  so  bitterly  resented  by  the  viv- 
ages.  Such  attacks  are  mere  pieces  nf  sentimental 
injustice.  The  settlors  were  perfectly  right  in  feel- 
ing that  they  had  a  right  to  -ettle  on  the  vast 
stretches  of  unoccupied  ground,  however  wrong 
some  of  their  individual  deeds  may  have  been. 
But  Mayer,  following  Jacobs  "  Life  of  Cresap," 
undoubtedly  paints  his  hero  in  altogether  too 
bright  colors. 


THE  WEST  255 

forgotten,18  he  did  a  deed  such  as  could  only 
be  committed  by  inhuman  and  cowardly 
scoundrels. 

The  other  two  actors  in  this  tragedy  were 
both  Indians,  and  were  both  men  of  much 
higher  stamp.  One  was  Cornstalk,  the 
Shawnee  chief ;  a  far-sighted  seer,  gloomily 
conscious  of  the  impending  ruin  of  his  race, 
a  great  orator,  a  mighty  warrior,  a  man  who 
knew  the  value  of  his  word  and  prized  his 
honor,  and  who  fronted  death  with  quiet, 
disdainful  heroism;  and  yet  a  fierce,  cruel, 
and  treacherous  savage  to  those  with  whom 
he  was  at  enmity,  a  killer  of  women  and  chil- 
dren, whom  we  first  hear  of,  in  Pontiac's 
war,  as  joining  in  the  massacre  of  unarmed 
and  peaceful  settlers  who  had  done  him  no 
wrong,  and  who  thought  that  he  was  friend- 
ly.19 The  other  was  Logan,  an  Iroquois 
warrior,  who  lived  at  that  time  away  from 
the  bulk  of  his  people,  but  who  was  a  man 
of  note — in  the  loose  phraseology  of  the  bor- 
der, a  chief  or  headman — among  the  outlying 
parties  of  Senecas  and  Mingos,  and  the  frag- 
ments of  broken  tribes  that  dwelt  along  the 
upper  Ohio.  He  was  a  man  of  splendid  ap- 
pearance ;  over  six  feet  high,  straight  as  a 
spear-shaft,  with  a  countenance  as  open  as  it 

18  Sappington.  Tomlinson.   and  Baker  were  the 
names  of  three  of  his  fellow-miscreants.     See  Jef- 
ferson MSS. 

19  At    Greenbriar.     See    "  Narrative    of   Captain 
John    Stewart."    an    act-ir   in   the   war. — Magazine 
of  American  History,  Vol.  I.,  p.  671. 


256  THE  WINNING  OF 

was  brave  and  manly,20  until  the  wrongs  he 
endured  stamped  on  it  an  expression  of 
gloomy  ferocity.  He  had  always  been  the 
friend  of  the  white  man,  and  had  been  noted 
particularly  for  his  kindness  and  gentleness 
to  children.  Up  to  this  time  he  had  lived  at 
peace  with  the  borderers,  for  though  some 
of  his  kin  had  been  massacred  by  them  years 
before,  he  had  forgiven  the  deed — perhaps 
not  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  others  of  his 
kin  had  been  concerned  in  still  more  bloody 
massacres  of  the  whites.  A  skilled  marks- 
man and  mighty  hunter,  of  commanding  dig- 
nity, who  treated  all  men  with  a  grave  court- 
esy that  exacted  the  same  treatment  in  re- 
turn, he  was  greatly  liked  and  respected  by 
all  the  white  hunters  and  frontiersmen  whose 
friendship  and  respect  were  worth  having ; 
they  admired  him  for  his  dexterity  and 
prowess,  and  they  loved  him  for  his  straight- 
forward honesty,  and  his  noble  loyalty  to  his 
friends.  One  of  these  old  pioneer  hunters 
lias  left  on  record  ij  the  statement  that  he 
deemed  "  Logan  the  best  specimen  of  hu- 
manity he  ever  met  with,  either  white  or  red." 
Such  was  Logan  before  the  evil  days  came 
upon  him. 

Early  in  the  spring  the  outlying  settlers  be- 
gan again  to  suffer  from  the  deeds  of  strag- 
gling Indians.  Horses  were  stolen,  one  or 
two  murders  were  committed,  the  inhabitants 
of  the  more  lonely  cabins  fled  to  the  forts, 

*°  London's   "Indian   Narratives,"    II.,   p.  223. 
11  See  "  American  Pioneer,''  I.,  p.  189. 


THE  WEST  257 

and  the  backwoodsmen  began  to  threaten 
fierce  vengeance.  On  April  i6th,  three  tra- 
ders in  the  employ  of  a  man  named  Butler 
were  attacked  by  some  of  the  outlaw  Chero- 
kees,  one  killed,  another  wounded,  and  their 
goods  plundered.  Immediately  after  this 
Conolly  issued  an  open  letter,  commanding 
the  backwoodsmen  to  hold  themselves  in 
readiness  to  repel  any  attack  by  the  Indians, 
as  the  Shawnees  were  hostile.  Such  a  letter 
from  Lord  Dunmore's  lieutenant  amounted 
to  a  declaration  of  war,  and  there  were  sure 
to  be  plenty  of  backwoodsmen  who  would 
put  a  very  liberal  interpretation  upon  the  or- 
der given  them  to  repel  an  attack.  Its  effects 
were  seen  instantly.  All  the  borderers  pre- 
pared for  war.  Cresap  was  near  Wheeling 
at  the  time,  with  a  band  of  hunters  and 
scouts,  fearless  men,  who  had  adopted  many 
of  the  ways  of  the  redskins,  in  addition  to 
their  method  of  fighting.  As  soon  as  they 
received  Conolly's  letter  they  proceeded  to 
declare  war  in  the  regular  Indian  style,  call- 
ing a  council,  planting  the  war-post,  and  go- 
ing through  other  savage  ceremonies,22  and 
eagerly  waited  for  a  chance  to  attack  their 
foes. 

Unfortunately  the  first  stroke  fell  on 
friendly  Indians.  The  trader,  P.utler,  spoken 
of  above,  in  order  to  recover  some  of  the 

"Letter  of  George  Rogers  Clark,  June  17,  1798. 
In  Jefferson  MSS.,  5th  Series,  Vol.  I.  (preserved 
in  Archives  of  State  Department  at  Washing- 
ton). 


258  THE   WINNING  Ol: 

peltries  of  which  he  had  been  robbed  by  the 
Cherokees,  had  sent  a  canoe  with  two  friendly 
Shawnees  towards  the  place  of  the  massacre. 
On  the  27th  Cresap  and  his  followers  am- 
bushed these  men  near  Captina,  and  killed 
and  scalped  them.  Some  of  the  better  back- 
woodsmen strongly  protested  against  this 
outrage  -:i ;  but  the  mass  of  them  were  ex- 
cited and  angered  by  the  rumor  of  Indian 
hostilities,  and  the  brutal  and  disorderly  side 
of  frontier  character  was  for  the  moment  up- 
permost. They  threatened  to  kill  whoever 
interfered  with  them,  cursing  the  "  damned 
traders"  as  bung  worse  than  the  Indians,24 
while  Cresap  boasted  of  the  murder,  and 
never  said  a  word  in  condemnation  of  the 
still  worse  deeds  that  followed  it."1"1  The  next 
day  he  again  led  out  Ins  men  and  attacked 
another  party  of  Shawnees,  who  had  been 
trading  near  I'ittsburg.  k'lled  one  and 
wounded  two  others,  one  of  the  whites  be- 
ing also  hurt.1'" 

Among  the  men  who  were  with  fresap  at 
this  time  was  a  voting  Virginian,  who  after- 

"  Witness  the  testimony  of  one  of  the  most  gal- 
lant Indian  fiphtcrs  of  tin-  bonier,  who  was  in 
Wheeling  at  the  lime:  letter  of  fob  Ebene/er 
Zane.  February  4.  1800.  in  Jefferson  MSS. 

"Jefferson  MSS.  Deposition  of  John  Gibson, 
April  4,  iSoo. 

"  Do.  Deposition  of  YVm.  Huston.  April  19, 
1708-  al-o  der>o--itir>n<:  of  Samuel  MrKee.  etc. 

M"Am.  Archives"  IV..  Vol.  I.,  p.  468.  Letter 
of  Devereux  Smith.  June  TO,  1774.  Gibson's  let- 
ter. Also  Jefferson  MSS. 


THE  WEST 


259 


wards  played  a  brilliant  part  in  the  history 
of  the  west,  who  was  for  ten  years  the  leader 
of  the  bold  spirits  of  Kentucky,  and  who  ren- 
dered the  whole  United  States  signal  and  ef- 
fective service  by  one  of  his  deeds  in  the  Rev- 
olutionary war.  This  was  George  Rogers 
Clark,  then  twenty-one  years  old.27  He  was 
of  good  family,  and  had  been  fairly  well  ed- 
ucated, as  education  went  in  colonial  days ; 
but  from  his  childhood  he  had  been  passion- 
ately fond  of  the  wild  roving  life  of  the 
woods.  He  was  a  great  hunter;  and,  like 
so  many  other  young  colonial  gentlemen  of 
good  birth  and  bringing  up,  and  adventurous 
temper,  he  followed  the  hazardous  profes- 
sion of  a  backwoods  surveyor.  With  chain 
and  compass,  as  well  as  axe  and  rifle,  he  pen- 
etrated the  far  places  of  the  wilderness,  the 
lonely,  dangerous  regions  where  every  weak 
man  inevitably  succumbed  to  the  manifold 
perils  encountered,  but  where  the  strong  and 
far-seeing  were  able  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  fame  and  fortune.  He  possessed  high 
daring,  unflinching  courage,  passions  which 
he  could  not  control,  and  a  frame  fitted  to 
stand  any  strain  of  fatigue  or  hardship.  He 
was  a  square-built  thick-set  man,  with  high 
broad  forehead,  sandy  hair,  and  unquailing 
b!ue  eyes  that  looked  out  from  under  heavy, 
jhaggy  brows.28 

"Historical  Magazine,  I.,  p.  168.  Born  in  Albe- 
marie  County.  Va.,  November  IQ,  1752. 

:"  Military  Journal  of  Major  Ebenezer  Denny, 
\vitb  an  introductory  memoir  by  William  H. 

S— 9  » 


260  THE  WIN  XING  OP 

Clark  had  taken  part  with  Cresap  in  his 
assault  upon  the  second  party  of  Shawnees. 
On  the  following  clay  the  whole  band  of 
whites  prepared  to  march  off  and  attack 
Logan's  camp  at  Yellow  Creek,  some  fifty 
miles  distant.  After  going  some  miles  they 
began  to  feel  ashamed  of  their  mission  ;  call- 
ing a  halt,  they  discussed  the  fact  that  the 
camj)  they  were  preparing  to  attack,  con- 
sisted exclusively  of  friendly  Indians,  and 
mainly  of  women  and  children  ;  and  forth- 
with abandoned  their  proposed  trip  and  re- 
turned home.  They  were  true  borderers — 
brave,  self-reliant,  loyal  to  their  friends,  and 
good-hearted  when  their  worst  instincts  were 
not  suddenly  aroused  ;  but  the  sight  of  blood- 
shed maddened  them  as  if  they  had  been  so 
many  wolves.  "Wrongs  stirred  to  the  depths 
their  moody  tempers,  and  filled  them  with  a 
brutal  longing  for  indiscriminate  revenge. 
When  goaded  by  memories  of  evil,  or  when 
swayed  by  swift,  fitful  gusts  of  furv,  the 
uncontrolled  violence  of  their  passions  led 
them  to  commit  deeds  whose  inhuman  bar- 
barity almost  equalled,  though  it  could  never 
surpass  that  shown  by  the  Indians  them- 
selves.2:i 

Denny   ( Publication  of  the  Hist.   Soc    of  Perm.). 
Phil.."  iSfio.  p.  216. 

"The  fresap  apologists  including  even  Brantz 
Mayer,  dwell  on  Crcsap's  nobleness  in  nnt  mas- 
sacring Logan's  family  !  Tt  was  certainly  to  his 
credit  that  he  did  not  do  so.  but  it  docs  not  speak 
very  well  for  him  that  ho  should  even  have  enter- 
tained the  thought.  lie  was  doubtless,  on  the 


THE  WEST  261 

But  Logan's  people  did  not  profit  by  Cre- 
sap's  change  of  heart.  On  the  last  day  of 
April  a  small  party  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  including  almost  all  of  Logan's 
kin,  left  his  camp  and  crossed  the  river  to 
visit  Greathouse,  as  had  been  their  custom; 
for  he  made  a  trade  of  selling  rum  to  the  sav- 
ages, though  Cresap  had  notified  him  to  stop. 
The  whole  party  were  plied  with  liquor,  and 
became  helplessly  drunk,  in  which  condition 
Greathouse  and  his  associated  criminals  fell 
on  and  massacred  them,  nine  souls  in  all.30 
It  was  an  inhuman  and  revolting  deed, 
which  should  consign  the  names  of  the  per- 
petrators to  eternal  infamy. 

At  once  the  frontier  was  in  a  blaze,  and 

whole,  a  brave,  good-hearted  man — quite  as  good 
as  the  average  borderer;  but  nevertheless  apt  to 
be  drawn  into  deeds  that  were  the  reverse  of  cred- 
itable. Mayer's  book  has  merit;  but  he  certainly 
paints  Logan  too  black  and  Cresap  too  white,  and 
(see  Appendix)  is  utterly  wrong  as  to  Logan's 
speech.  He  is  right  in  recognizing  the  fact  that 
in  the  war,  as  a  whole,  justice  was  on  the  side  of 
the  frontiersmen. 

40  Devereux  Smith's  letter.  Some  of  the  evil- 
doers afterwards  tried  to  palliate  their  misdeeds 
by  stating  that  Logan's  brother,  when  drunk,  in- 
sulted a  white  man,  and  that  the  other  Indians 
were  at  the  time  on  the  point  of  executing  an 
attack  upon  them.  The  last  statement  is  self- 
evidently  false ;  for  had  such  been  the  case,  the 
Indians  would,  of  course,  never  have  let  some  of 
their  women  and  children  put  themselves  in  the 
power  of  the  whites,  and  get  helplessly  drunk; 
and,  anyhow,  the  allegations  of  such  brutal  and 
cowardly  murderers  are  entirely  unworthy  of  ac- 
ceptance, unless  backed  up  by  outside  evidence. 


262  THE   WINNING  OF 

the  Indians  girded  themselves  for  revenge. 
The  Mingos  sent  out  runners  to  the  other 
tribes,  telling  of  the  butchery,  and  calling  on 
all  the  red  men  to  join  together  for  imme- 
diate and  bloody  vengeance.31  They  con- 
fused the  two  massacres,  attributing  both 
to  Cresap,  whom  they  well  knew  as  a  war- 
rior 'J'2 ;  and  their  women  for  long  after- 
wards scared  the  children  into  silence  by 
threatening  them  with  Cresap's  name  as  with 
that  of  a  monster.33  They  had  indeed  been 
brutally  wronged ;  yet  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  they  themselves  were  the  first  ag- 
gressors. They  had  causelessly  murdered 
and  robbed  many  whites,  and  now  their  sins 
had  recoiled  on  the  heads  of  the  innocent  of 
their  own  race.  The  conflict  could  not  in 
any  event  have  been  delayed  long;  the 
frontiersmen  were  too  deeply  and  too  justly 
irritated.  These  particular  massacres,  how- 
ever discreditable  to  those  taking  part  in 
them,  were  the  occasions,  not  the  causes,  of 
the  war ;  and  though  they  cast  a  dark  shade 
on  the  conduct  of  the  whites,  they  do  not  re- 
lieve the  red  men  from  the  charges  of  having 
committed  earlier,  more  cruel,  and  quite  as 
wanton  outrages. 

Conolly,  an  irritable  but  irresolute  man, 
was  appalled  by  the  storm  he  had  helped 

"Jeffercon  MSS.,  sth  Series,  Vol.  I.,  Hecke- 
welder's  letter. 

"Jefferson  MSS  Deposition  of  Col.  James 
Smith,  May  25,  1798. 

"Do.,  Heckewelder's  letter. 


THE  WEST  263 

raise.  He  meanly  disclaimed  all  responsi- 
bility for  Cresap's  action,34  and  deposed  him 
from  his  command  of  rangers;  to  which, 
however,  he  was  soon  restored  by  Lord  Dun- 
more.  Both  the  earl  and  his  lieutenant,  how- 
ever, united  in  censuring  severely  Great- 
houses's  deed.30  Conolly,  throughout  May, 
held  a  series  of  councils  with  the  Delawares 
and  Iroquois,  in  which  he  disclaimed  and 
regretted  the  outrages,  and  sought  for 
peace.36  To  one  of  these  councils  the  Dela- 
ware chief,  Killbuck,  with  other  warriors, 
sent  a  "  talk  "  or  "  speech  in  writing  "  3T 
disavowing  the  deeds  of  one  of  their  own 
parties  of  young  braves,  who  had  gone  on 
the  warpath ;  and  another  Delaware  chief 
made  a  very  sensible  speech,  saying  that  it 
was  unfortunately  inevitable  that  bad  men 
on  both  sides  should  commit  wrongs,  and 
that  the  cooler  heads  should  not  be  led  away 
by  acts  due  to  the  rashness  and  folly  of  a  few. 
But  the  Shawnees  showed  no  such  spirit. 
On  the  contrary  they  declared  for  war  out- 
right, and  sent  a  bold  defiance  to  the  Vir- 
ginians, at  the  same  time  telling  Conolly 
plainly  that  he  lied.  Their  message  is  note- 
worthy, because,  after  expressing  a  firm  be- 
lief that  the  Virginian  leader  could  control 
his  warriors,  and  stop  the  outrages  if  he 
wished,  it  added  that  the  Shawnee  head 

14  "  Am.  Archives,"  IV.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  475. 
85  Do.,  p.  1015. 
"Do.,  p.  475. 
"  Do.,  p.  418. 


264 

men  were  able  to  do  the  like  with  their  own 
men  when  they  required  it.  This  last  alle- 
gation took  away  all  shadow  of  excuse  from 
the  Shawnees  for  not  having  stopped  die 
excesses  of  which  their  young  braves  had 
been  guilty  during  the  past  few  years. 

Though  Conolly  showed  signs  of  flinching, 
his  master  the  earl  had  evidently  no  thought 
of  shrinking  from  the  contest.  He  at  once 
began  actively  to  prepare  to  attack  his  foes, 
and  the  Virginians  backed  him  up  heartily, 
though  the  Royal  Government,  instead  of 
supporting  him,  censured  him  in  strong 
terms,  and  accused  the  whites  of  being  the 
real  aggressors  and  the  authors  of  the  war.3* 

In  any  event,  it  would  have  been  out  of 
the  question  to  avoid  a  contest  at  so  late  a 
date.  Immediately  after  the  murders  in  the 
end  of  April,  the  savages  crossed  the  frontier 
in  small  bands.  Soon  all  the  back  country 
was  involved  in  the  unspeakable  horrors  of  a 
bloody  Indian  war.  with  its  usual  accompani- 
ments of  burning  houses,  tortured  prisoners, 
and  ruined  families,  the  men  being  killed  and 
the  women  and  children  driven  off  to  a  horri- 

v  Do.,  p.  774.  Letter  of  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth. 
Sept.  10,  1/74.  A  sufficient  answer,  by  the  way, 
to  the  ab-urd  charge  that  Dunmore  brought  on  the 
war  in  consequence  of  some  mysterious  plan  of 
the  Home  Government  to  embroil  the  Americans 
with  the  savage-.  It  is  not  at  all  improbable  that 
the  Crown  advi-crs  were  not  particularly  dis- 
plea^ed  at  -eeing  the  attention  of  the  Americans 
distracted  by  a  war  with  the  Indians;  but  this  is 
the  utmost  that  can  be  alleged. 


THE  WEST.  265 

ble  captivity.39  The  Indians  declared  that 
they  were  not  at  war  with  Pennsylvania,40 
and  the  latter  in  return  adopted  an  attitude 
of  neutrality,  openly  disclaiming  any  share 
in  the  wrong  that  had  been  done,  and  assur- 
ing the  Indians  that  it  rested  solely  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  Virginians.41  Indeed  the 
Shawnees  protected  the  Pennsylvania  trad- 
ers from  some  hostile  Mingos,  while  the 
Pennsylvania  militia  shielded  a  party  of 
Shawnees  from  some  of  Conolly's  men42 ; 
and  the  Virginians,  irritated  by  what  they 
considered  an  abandonment  of  the  white 
cause,  were  bent  on  destroying  the  Pennsyl- 
vania fur  trade  with  the  Indians.43  Never- 
theless, some  of  the  bands  of  young  braves 
who  were  out  on  the  war-path  failed  to 
discriminate  between  white  friends  and  foes, 
and  a  number  of  Pennsylvanians  fell  victims 
to  their  desire  for  scalps  and  their  ignorance. 
or  indifference  as  to  whom  they  were  at  war 
with.44 

The  panic  along  the  Pennsylvania  frontier 
was  terrible ;  the  out  settlers  fled  back  to 
the.  interior  across  the  mountains,  or 
gathered  in  numbers  to  defend  themselves.45 
On  the  Virginian  frontier,  where  the  real  at- 
tack was  delivered,  the  panic  was  more  jus- 

89  Do.,  p.  808. 

40  Do.,  p.  478. 

"  Do.,  p.  506. 

"Do.,  p.  474. 

43  Do.,  p.  549. 

"Do.,  p.  471. 

"  Do.,  pp.  435,  467,  602. 


266  THE  WINNING  OF 

tifiable ;  xor  terrible  ravages  \vere  committed, 
and  the  inhabitants  were  forced  to  gather 
together  in  their  forted  villages,  and  could  no 
longer  cultivate  their  farms,  except  by 
stealth.40  Instead  of  being  cowed,  however, 
the  backwoodsmen  clamored  to  be  led  against 
their  foes,  and  made  most  urgent  appeals  for 
powder  and  lead,  of  which  there  was  a  great 
scarcity.47 

The  confusion  was  heightened  by  the  an- 
archy in  which  the  government  of  the  north- 
western district  had  been  thrown  in  conse- 
quence of  the  quarrel  concerning  the  juris- 
diction. The  inhabitants  were  doubtful  as  to 
which  colony  really  had  a  right  to  their  al- 
legiance, and  many  of  the  frontier  officials 
were  known  to  be  double-faced,  professing 
allegiance  to  both  governments.48  When 
the  Pennsylvanians  raised  a  corps  of  a  hun- 
dred rangers  there  almost  ensued  a  civil  war 
among  the  whites,  for  the  Virginians  were 
fearful  that  the  movement  was  really  aimed 
against  them.40  Of  course  the  march  of 
events  gradually  forced  most,  even  of  the 
neutral  Indians,  to  join  their  brethren  who 
had  gone  on  the  war-path,  and  as  an  example 
of  the  utter  confusion  that  reigned,  the  very 
Indians  that  were  at  war  with  one  British 
colony,  Virginia,  were  still  drawing  supplies 
from  the  British  post  of  Detroit.50 

**  Do.,  pp.  405,  707. 
"  Do.,  p.  808. 
"  Do.,  p.  677. 
"Do.,  pp.  463,  467. 
"Do.,  p.  684. 


THE  WEST  267 

Logan's  rage  had  been  terrible.  He  had 
changed  and  not  for  the  better,  as  he  grew 
older,  becoming  a  sombre,  moody  man ; 
worse  than  all,  he  had  succumbed  to  the  fire- 
water, the  curse  of  his  race.  The  horrible 
treachery  and  brutality  of  the  assault 
wherein  his  kinsfolk  were  slain  made  him 
mad  for  revenge;  every  wolfish  instinct  in 
him  came  to  the  surface.  He  wreaked  a  ter- 
rible vengeance  for  his  wrongs ;  but  in  true 
Indian  fashion  it  fell,  not  on  those  who  had 
caused  them,  but  on  others  who  were  en- 
tirely innocent.  Indeed  he  did  not  know  who 
had  caused  them.  The  massacres  at  Captina 
and  Yellow  Creek  occurred  so  near  together 
that  they  were  confounded  with  each  other; 
and  not  only  the  Indians  but  many  whites  as 
well r>1  credited  Cresap  and  Greathouse  with 
being  jointly  responsible  for  both,  and  as 
Cresap  was  the  most  prominent,  he  was  the 
one  especially  singled  out  for  hatred. 

Logan  instantly  fell  on  the  settlement  w:ith 
a  small  band  of  Mingo  warriors.  On  his 
first  foray  he  took  thirteen  scalps,  among 
them  those  of  six  children.52  A  party  of 
Virginians,  under  a  man  named  McClure, 
followed  him ;  but  he  ambushed  and  defeated 
them,  slaying  their  leader.53  He  repeated 
these  forays  at  least  three  times.  Yet,  in 
spite  of  his  fierce  craving  for  revenge,  he 
still  showed  many  of  the  traits  that  had  made 

K  Do.,  p.  435. 

62  Do.,  pp.  468,  546. 

KDo.}  p.  470. 


268  THE  WINNING  OF 

him  beloved  of  his  white  friends.  Having 
taken  a.  prisoner,  he  refused  to  allow  him 
to  be  tortured,  and  saved  his  life  at  the  risk 
of  his  own.  A  few  days  afterwards  he  sud- 
denly appeared  to  this  prisoner  with  some 
gunpowder  ink,  and  dictated  to  him  a  note. 
On  his  next  expedition  this  note,  tied  to  a 
war-club,  was  left  in  the  house  of  a  settler, 
whose  entire  family  was  murdered.  It  was 
a  short  document,  written  with  ferocious  di- 
rectness, as  a  kind  of  public  challenge  or 
taunt  to  the  man  whom  he  wrongly  deemed 
to  be  the  author  of  his  misfortunes.  It  ran 
as  follows : 

"CAPTAIN  CRESAP: 

"  What  did  you  kill  my  people  on  Yellow 
Creek  for?  The  white  people  killed  my  kin 
at  Conestoga,  a  great  while  ago,  and  I 
thought  nothing  of  that.  But  you  killed  my 
kin  again  on  Yellow  Creek,  and  took  my 
cousin  prisoner.  Then  I  thought  I  must 
kill  too ;  and  I  have  been  three  times  to  war 
since ;  but  the  Indians  are  not  angry,  only 
myself.  CAPTAIN  JOHN  LOGAN. "°4 

"July  21,  1774. 

There  is  a  certain  deliberate  and  blood- 
thirsty earnestness  about  this  letter  which 

"Jefferson  MSS.  Dep.  of  Win.  Robinson,  Feb- 
ruary 28.  1800,  and  letter  from  Harry  limes, 
March  2,  1790,  with  a  copy  of  Logan's  letter  as 
made  in  his  note-book  at  the  time. 


THE  WEST  269 

must  have  shown  the  whites  clearly,  if  they 
still  needed  to  be  shown,  what  bitter  cause 
they  had  to  rue  the  wrongs  that  had  been 
done  to  Logan. 

The  Shawnees  and  Mingos  were  soon 
joined  by  many  of  the  Dela wares  and  outly- 
ing Iroquois,  especially  Senecas ;  as  well  as 
by  the  Wyandots  and  by  large  bands  of  ar- 
dent young  warriors  from  among  the  Al- 
gonquin tribes  along  the  Miami,  the  Wa- 
Jjash,  and  the  Lakes.  Their  inroads  on  the 
settlements  were  characterized,  as  usual,  by 
extreme  stealth  and  merciless  ferocity.  They 
stole  out  of  the  woods  with  the  silent  cun- 
ning of  wild  beasts,  and  ravaged  with  a 
cruelty  ten  times  greater.  They  burned 
down  the  lonely  log-huts,  ambushed  travel- 
lers, shot  the  men  as  they  hunted  or  tilled 
the  soil,  ripped  open  the  women  with  child, 
and  burned  many  of  their  captives  at  the 
stake.  Their  noiseless  approach  enabled 
them  to  fall  on  the  settlers  before  their  pres- 
ence was  suspected ;  and  they  disappeared  as 
suddenly  as  they  had  come,  leaving  no  trail 
that  could  be  followed.  The  charred  huts 
and  scalped  and  mangled  bodies  of  their  vic- 
tims were  left  as  ghastly  reminders  of  their 
visit,  the  sight  stirring  the  backwoodsmen  to 
a  frenzy  of  rage  all  the  more  terrible  in  the 
end,  because  it  was  impotent  for  the  time 
being.  Generally  they  made  their  escape,  suc- 
cessfully ;  occasionally  they  were  beaten  off  or 
overtaken  and  killed  or  scattered. 

When  they  met  armed  woodsmen  the  fight 


270  THE  WINNING  OF 

was  always  desperate.  In  May  a  party  of 
hunters  and  surveyors,  being  suddenly  at- 
tacked in  the  forest,  beat  off  their  assailants 
and  took  eight  scalps,  though  with  a  loss  of 
nine  of  their  own  number. r'r>  Moreover,  the 
settlers  began  to  band  together  to  make  retal- 
iatory inroads  ;  and  while  Lord  Dunmore  was 
busily  preparing  to  strike  a  really  effective 
blow,  he  directed  the  frontiersmen  of  the 
northwest  to  undertake  a  foray,  so  as  to 
keep  the  Indians  employed.  Accordingly, 
they  gathered  together,  four  hundred 
strong,™  crossed  the  Ohio,  in  the  end  of  July, 
and  marched  against  a  Shawnee  town  on  the 
Muskingum.  They  had  a  brisk  skirmish 
with  the  Shawnees,  drove  them  back,  and 
took  five  scalps,  losing  two  men  killed  and 
five  wounded.  Then  the  Shawnees  tried  to 
ambush  them,  but  their  ambush  was  discov- 
ered, and  they  promptly  fled,  after  a  slight 
skirmish,  in  which  no  one  was  killed  but 
one  Indian,  whom  Cresap,  a  very  active  and 
vigorous  man,  ran  down  and  slew  with  his 
tomahawk.57  The  Shawnee  village  was 
burned,  seventy  acres  of  standing  corn  were 
cut  down,  and  the  settlers  returned  in  tri- 
umph. On  the  march  back'  they  passed 
through  the  towns  of  the  peaceful  Moravian 
Delawares,  to  whom  they  did  no  harm. 

""Am.  Archives."  p.  373. 

M  Under  a  certain  Antrm  MacDonald,  do.,  p. 
722.  They  crossed  the  Ohio  at  Fish  Creek,  I2O 
miles  below  Pitt^burg. 

11  "  Am.  Archives,"  IV,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  682,  684. 


APPENDICES. 


APPENDICES. 

APPENDIX  A— TO  CHAPTER  IV 

IT  is  greatly  to  be  wished  that  some  com- 
petent person  would  write  a  full  and  true  his- 
tory of  our  national  dealings  with  the  In- 
dians. Undoubtedly  the  latter  have  often 
suffered  terrible  injustice  at  our  hands.  A 
number  of  instances,  such  as  the  conduct  of 
the  Georgians  to  the  Cherokees  in  the  early 
part  of  the.  present  century,  or  the  whole 
treatment  of  Chief  Joseph  and  his  Nez 
Perc.es,  might  be  mentioned,  which  are  in- 
delible blots  on  our  fair  fame ;  and  yet,  in 
describing  our  dealings  with  the  red  men  as 
a  whole,  historians  do  us  much  less  than  jus- 
tice. 

It  was  wholly  impossible  to  avoid  conflicts 
with  the  weaker  race,  unless  we  were  willing 
to  see  the  American  continent  fall  into  the 
hands  of  some  other  strong  power ;  and  even 
had  we  adopted  such  a  ludicrous  policy,  the 
Indians  themselves  would  have  made  war 
upon  us.  It  cannot  be  too  often  insisted  that 
they  did  not  own  the  land ;  or,  at  least,  that 
their  ownership  was  merely  such  as  that 
claimed  often  by  our  own  white  hunters. 
If  the  Indians  really  owned  Kentucky  in 
1775,  then  in  1776  it  was  the  property  of 

273 


274 


APPENDICES 


Boone  and  his  associates ;  and  to  dispossess 
one  party  was  as  great  a  wrong  as  to  dispos- 
sess the  other.  To  recognize  the  Indian  own- 
ership of  the  limitless  prairies  and  forests  of 
this  continent — that  is,  to  consider  the  dozen 
squalid  savages  who  hunted  at  long  inter- 
vals over  a  territory  of  a  thousand  square 
miles  as  owning  it  outright — necessarily  im- 
plies a  similar  recognition  of  the  claims  of 
every  white  hunter,  squatter,  horse-thief,  or 
wandering  cattle-man.  Take  as  an  example 
the  country  round  the  Little  Missouri. 
\Yhen  the  cattle-men,  the  first  actual  settlers, 
came  into  this  land  in  1882,  it  was  already 
scantily  peopled  by  a  few  white  hunters  and 
trappers.  The  latter  were  extremely  jealous 
of  intrusion  ;  they  had  held  their  own  in  spite 
of  the  Indians,  and,  like  the  Indians,  the  in- 
rush of  settlers  and  the  consequent  destruc- 
tion of  the  game  meant  their  own  undoing; 
also,  again  like  the  Indians,  they  felt  that 
their  having  hunted  over  the  soil  gave  them 
a  vague  prescriptive  right  to  its  sole  occu- 
pation, and  they  did  their  best  to  keep  actual 
settlers  out.  In  some  cases,  to  avoid  diffi- 
culty, their  nominal  claims  were  bought  up; 
generally,  and  rightly,  they  were  disregarded. 
Yet  they  certainly  had  as  good  a  right  to  the 
Little  Missouri  country  as  the  Sioux  have  to 
most  of  the  land  on  their  present  reserva- 
tions. In  fact,  the  mere  statement  of  the 
case  is  sufficient  to  show  the  absurdity  of  as- 
serting that  the  land  reallv  belonged  to  the 
Indians.  The  different  tribes  have  always 


APPENDICES 


275 


been  utterly  unable  to  define  their  own  boun- 
daries. Thus  the  Delawares  and  Wyandots, 
in  1785,  though  entirely  separate  nations, 
claimed  and,  in  a  certain  sense,  occupied  al- 
most exactly  the  same  territory. 

Moreover,  it  was  wholly  impossible  for 
our  policy  to  be  always  consistent  Nowa- 
days we  undoubtedly  ought  to  break  up  the 
great  Indian  reservations,  disregard  the  tribal 
governments,  allot  the  land  in  severally 
(with,  however,  only  a  limited  power  of 
alienation),  and  treat  the  Indians  as  we  do 
other  citizens,  with  certain  exceptions,  for 
their  sakes  as  well  as  ours.  But  this  policy, 
which  it  would  be  wise  to  follow  now,  would 
have  been  wholly  impracticable  a  century 
since.  Our  central  government  was  then  too 
weak  either  effectively  to  control  its  own 
members  or  adequately  to  punish  aggressions 
made  upon  them ;  and  even  if  it  had  been 
strong,  it  would  probably  have  proved  im- 
possible to  keep  entire  order  over  such  a 
vast,  sparsely-peopled  frontier,  with  such  tur- 
bulent elements  on  both  sides.  The  Indians 
could  not  be  treated  as  individuals  at  that 
time.  There  was  no  possible  alternative, 
therefore,  to  treating  their  tribes  as  nations, 
exactly  as  the  French  and  English  had  done 
before  us.  Our  difficulties  were  partly  in- 
herited from  these,  our  predecessors,  were 
partly  caused  by  our  own  misdeeds,  but  were 
mainly  the  inevitable  result  of  the  conditions 
under  which  the  problem  had  to  be  solved; 
no  human  wisdom  or  virtue  could  have 


276  APP  EX  DICES 

worked  out  a  peaceable  solution.  As  a  na- 
tion, our  Indian  policy  is  to  be  blamed,  be- 
cause of  the  weakness  it  displayed,  because 
of  its  shortsightedness,  and  its  occasional 
leaning  to  the  policy  of  the  sentimental  hu- 
manitarians ;  and  we  have  often  promised 
what  was  impossible  to  perform ;  but  there 
has  been  little  wilful  wrong-doing.  Our 
government  almost  always  tried  to  act  fairly 
by  the  tribes  ;  the  governmental  agents  (some 
of  whom  have  been  dishonest,  and  others 
foolish,  but  who,  as  a  class,  have  been  greatly 
traduced  ),  in  their  reports,  are  far  more  apt 
to  be  unjust  to  the  whites  than  to  the  reds; 
and  the  Federal  authorities,  though  unable 
to  prevent  much  of  the  injustice,  still  did 
check  and  control  the  white  borderers  very 
much  more  effectually  than  the  Indian  sa- 
chems  and  war-chiefs  controlled  their  young 
braves.  The  tribes  were  warlike  and  blood- 
thirst}-,  jealous  of  each  other  and  of  the 
white> ;  thev  claimed  the  land  for  their  hunt- 
ing grounds,  but  their  claims  all  conflicted 
with  "ne  another;  their  knowledge  of  their 
own  boundaries  was  so  indefinite  that  they 
were  always  willing,  for  inadequate  compen- 
sation, to  sell  land  to  which  they  had  merelv 
tluv  vaguest  title:  and  yet,  when  once  they 
had  received  the  goods,  were  generally  re- 
Inrtant  to  make  over  even  what  they  could  ; 
thev  coveted  the  goods  and  scalps  of  the 
whites,  and  the  young  warriors  were  always 
on  the  alert  to  commit  outrages  when  they 
could  do  it  with  impunity.  On  the  other 


APPENDICES  277 

hand,  the  evil-disposed  whites  regarded  the 
Indians  as  fair  game  for  robbery  and  vio- 
lence of  any  kind ;  and  the  far  larger  num- 
ber of  well-disposed  men,  who  would  not 
willingly  wrong  any  Indian,  were  themselves 
maddened  by  the  memories  of  hideous  in- 
juries received.  They  bitterly  resented  the 
action  of  the  government,  which,  in  their 
eyes,  failed  to  properly  protect  them,  and  yet 
sought  to  keep  them  out  of  waste,  unculti- 
vated lands  which  they  did  not  regard  as  be- 
ing any  more  the  property  of  the  Indians 
than  of  their  own  hunters.  With  the  best 
intentions,  it  was  wholly  impossible  for  any 
government  to  evolve  order  out  of  such  a 
chaos  without  resort  to  the  ultimate  arbi- 
trator— the  sword. 

The  purely  sentimental  historians  take  no 
account  of  the  difficulties  under  which  we 
labored,  nor  of  the  countless  wrongs  and 
provocations  we  endured,  while  grossly  mag- 
nifying the  already  lamentably  large  number 
of  injuries  for  which  we  really  deserve  to  be 
held  responsible.  To  get  a  fair  idea  of  the 
Indians  of  the  present  day,  and  of  our  deal- 
ings with  them,  we  have  fortunately  one  or 
two  excellent  books,  notably  "  Hunting 
Grounds  of  the  Great  West,"  and  "  Our  Wil'cl 
Indians,"  by  Col.  Richard  I.  Dodge  (Hart- 
ford, 1882),  and  "  Massacres  of  the  Moun- 
tains," by  J.  P.  Dunn  (New  York,  1886). 
As  types  of  the  opposite  class,  which  are 
worse  than  valueless,  and  which  nevertheless 
might  cause  some  hasty  future  historian,  un- 


278  APPENDICES 

acquainted  with  the  facts,  to  fall  into  griev- 
ous error.  I  may  mention,  "  A  Century  of 
Dishonor,"  by  H.  H.  (Mrs.  Helen  Hunt 
Jackson),  and  "Our  Indian  Wards,"  (Geo. 
W.  Manypenny).  The  latter  is  a  mere  spite- 
ful diatribe  against  various  army  officers,  and 
neither  its  manner  nor  its  matter  warrants 
more  than  an  allusion.  Mrs.  Jackson's  book 
is  capable  of  doing  more  harm  because  it  is 
written  in  good  English,  and  because  the 
author,  who  had  lived  a  pure  and  noble  life, 
was  intensely  in  earnest  in  what  she  wrote, 
and  had  the  most  praiseworthy  purpose — to 
prevent  our  committing  any  more  injustice 
to  the  Indians.  This  was  all  most  proper ; 
every  good  man  or  woman  should  do  what- 
ever is  possible  to  make  the  government  treat 
the  Indians  of  the  present  time  in  the  fairest 
and  most  generous  spirit,  and  to  provide 
against  any  repetition  of  such  outrages  as 
were  inflicted  upon  the  Xcz  Perc.es  and  upon 
part  of  the  Cheyennes,  or  the  wrongs  with 
which  the  civilized  nations  of  the  Indian  ter- 
ritory are  sometimes  threatened.  The  pur- 
pose of  the  book  is  excellent,  but  the  spirit 
in  which  it  is  written  cannot  be  called  even 
technically  honest.  As  a  polemic,  it  is  pos- 
sible that  it  did  not  do  harm  (though  the  ef- 
fect of  even  a  polemic  is  marred  by  hysterical 
indifference  to  facts).  As  a  history  it  would 
be  beneath  criticism,  were  it  not  that  the  high 
character  of  the  author  and  her  excellent 
literary  work  in  other  directions  have  given 
it  a  fictitious  value  and  made  it  much  quoted 


APPENDICES  279 

by  the  large  class  of  amiable  but  maudlin 
fanatics  concerning  whom  it  may  be  said  that 
the  excellence  of  their  intentions  but  indif- 
ferently atones  for  the  invariable  folly  and  ill 
effect  of  their  actions.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  the  book  is  thoroughly  untrustwor- 
thy from  cover  to  cover,  and  that  not  a  sin- 
gle statement  it  contains  should  be  accepted 
without  independent  proof ;  for  even  those 
that  are  not  absolutely  false,  are  often  as  bad 
on  account  of  so  much  of  the  truth  having 
been  suppressed.  One  effect  of  this  is  of 
course  that  the  author's  recitals  of  the  many 
real  wrongs  of  Indian  tribes  utterly  fail  to 
impress  us,  because  she  lays  quite  as  much 
stress  on  those  that  are  non-existent,  and 
on  the  equally  numerous  cases  where  the 
wrong-doing  was  wholly  the  other  way.  To 
get  an  idea  of  the  value  of  the  work,  it  is 
only  necessary  to  compare  her  statements 
about  almost  any  tribe  with  the  real  facts, 
choosing  at  random ;  for  instance,  compare 
her  accounts  of  the  Sioux  and  the  plains 
tribes  generally,  with  those  given  by  Col. 
Dodge  in  his  two  books ;  or  her  recital  of  the 
Sandy  Creek  massacre  with  the  facts  as 
stated  by  Mr.  Dunn — who  is  apt,  if  any 
thing,  to  lean  to  the  Indian's  side. 

These  foolish  sentimentalists  not  only 
write  foul  slanders  about  their  own  country- 
men, but  are  themselves  the  worst  possible 
advisers  on  any  point  touching  Indian  man- 
agement. They  would  do  well  to  heed  Gen- 
eral Sheridan's  bitter  words,  written  when 


2  So  Al'L'EX  DICES 

many  Easterners  were  clamoring  against  the 
army  authorities  because  they  took  partial 
vengeance  for  a  series  of  brutal  outrages: 
"  I  do  not  know  how  far  these  humanitari- 
ans should  be  excused  on  account  of  their 
ignorance;  but  surely  it  is  the  only  excuse 
that  can  give  a  shadow  of  justification  for 
aiding  and  abetting  such  horrid  crimes." 

APPENDIX  B— TO  CHAPTER  V 

In  Mr.  Shaler's  entertaining  "  History  of 
Kentucky,"  there  is  an  account  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  western  frontiers,  and  Ken- 
tuckv,  interesting  because  it  illustrates  some 

^  J  o 

of  the  popular  delusions  on  the  subject.  lie 
speaks  (pp.  9,  11,  23)  of  Kentucky  as  con- 
taining "  nearly  pure  English  blood,  mainly 
derived  through  the  old  Dominion,  and  al- 
together from  districts  that  shared  the  Vir- 
ginian conditions."  As  much  of  the  blood 
was  Pennsylvania!!  or  Xorth  Carolinian,  his 
last  sentence  means  nothing,  unless  all  the 
"  districts  "  outside  of  Xew  England  are 
held  to  have  shared  the  Virginian  conditions. 
Turning  to  Marshall  ( I.,  441 )  we  see  that  in 
1780  about  half  the  people  were  from  Vir- 
ginia, Pennsylvania  furnishing  the  next 
greatest  number;  and  of  the  Virginians  most 
were  from  a  population  much  more  like  that 
of  Pennsylvania  than  like  that  of  tide-water 
Virginia ;  as  we  learn  from  twenty  sources, 
such  as  Waddell's  ''  Annals  of  Augusta 


APPENDICES  281 

County."  Mr.  Shaler  speaks  of  the  Hugue- 
nots and  of  the  Scotch  immigrants,  who 
came  over  after  1745,  but  actually  makes 
no  mention  of  the  Presbyterian  Irish  or 
Scotch  Irish,  much  the  most  important  ele- 
ment in  all  the  west ;  in  fact,  on  p.  10,  he 
impliedly  excludes  any  such  immigration  at 
all.  He  greatly  underestimates  the  German 
element,  which  was  important  in  West  Vir- 
ginia. He  sums  up  by  stating  that  the  Ken- 
tuckians  come  from  the  "  truly  British  peo- 
ple/' quite  a  different  thing  from  his  state- 
ment that  they  are  "  English." 

The  "  truly  British  people  "  consists  of  a 
conglomerate  of  as  distinct  races  as  exist 
anywhere  in  Aryan  Europe.  The  Erse, 
Welsh,  and  Gaelic  immigrants  to  America 
are  just  as  distinct  from  the  English,  just 
as  "  foreign  "  to  them,  as  are.  the  Scandina- 
vians, Germans,  Hollanders,  and  Huguenots 
— often  more  so.  Such  early  families  as  the 
Welsh  Shelbys,  and  Gaelic  McAfees  are  no 
more  English  than  are  the  Huguenot  Seviers 
or  the  German  Stoners.  Even  including 
merely  the  immigrants  from  the  British 
Isles,  the  very  fact  that  the  Welsh,  Irish,  and 
Scotch,  in  a  few  generations,  fuse  with  the 
English  instead  of  each  element  remaining 
separate,  makes  the  American  population 
widely  different  from  that  of  Britain ;  ex- 
actly as  a  flask  of  water  is  different  from  two 
cans  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen  gas.  Mr. 
Shaler  also  seems  inclined  to  look  down  a 
little  on  the  Tennesseeans,  and  to  consider 


282  APPENDICES 

their  population  as  composed  in  part  of  in- 
ferior elements ;  but  in  reality,  though  there 
are  very  marked  differences  between  the  two 
commonwealths  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee, 

yet  they  resemble  one  another  more  closely, 
in  blood  and  manners,  than  either  does  any 
other  American  State  ;  and  both  have  too  just 
cause  for  pride  to  make  it  necessary  for 
either  to  sneer  at  the  other,  or  indeed  at  any 
State  of  our  mighty  Federal  Union.  In  their 
origin  they  were  precisely  alike;  but  whereas 
the  original  pioneers,  the  hunters  and  In- 
dian fighters,  kept  possession  of  Tennessee 
as  long  as  thcv  lived, — Jackson,  at  Sevier's 
death,  taking  the  latter's  place  with  even 
more  than  his  power, — in  Kentucky,  on  the 
other  hand,  after  twenty  years'  rule,  the  first 
settlers  were  swamped  by  the  great  inrush  of 
immigration,  and  with  the  defeat  of  Logan 
for  governor  the  control  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  same  class  of  men  that  then 
ruled  Virginia.  After  that  date  the  "tide- 
water "  stock  assumed  an  importance  in  Ken- 
tucky it  never  had  in  Tennessee ;  and  of 
course  the  influence  of  the  Scotch-Irish  blood 
was  greatly  diminished. 

Mr.  Shaler's  error  is  trivial  compared  {o 
that  made  by  another  and  even  more  bril- 
liant writer.  In  the  "  History  of  the  People 
of  the  United  States,"  by  Professor  Mc- 
Master  (Xew  York,  1887),  p.  70,  there  is 
a  mistake  so  glaring  that  it  would  not  need 
notice,  were  it  not  for  the  many  excellencies 
and  wide  repute  of  Professor  McMaster's 


APPENDICES  283 

book.  He  says  that  of  the  immigrants  to 
Kentucky,  most  had  come  "  from  the 
neighboring  States  to  Carolina  and  Georgia," 
and  shows  that  this  is  not  a  mere  slip  of  the 
pen,  by  elaborating  the  statement  in  the  fol- 
lowing paragraphs,  again  speaking  of  North 
and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  as  furnish- 
ing the  colonists  to  Kentucky.  This  shows 
a  complete  misapprehension  not  only  of  the 
feeding-grounds  of  the  western  emigration, 
but  of  the  routes  it  followed,  and  of  the  con- 
ditions of  the  southern  States.  South  Caro- 
lina furnished  very  few  emigrants  to  Ken- 
tucky, and  Georgia  practically  none ;  com- 
bined they  probably  did  not  furnish  as  many 
as  New  Jersey  or  Maryland.  Georgia  was 
herself  a  frontier  community ;  she  received 
instead  of  sending  out  immigrants.  The  bulk 
of  the  South  Carolina  emigration  went  to 
Georgia. 

APPENDIX  C— TO  CHAPTER  VI 
OFFICE  OF  THE  SECRETARY  OF  STATE, 

NASHVILLE,  TENN.,  June  12,  1888. 

Hon.  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT, 
SAGAMORE  HILL, 

LONG  ISLAND,  N.  Y. 

DEAR  SIR: 

I  was  born,  "  raised,"  and  have  always 
lived  in  Washington  County,  E.  Tenn.  Was 
born  on  the  "  head-waters  "  of  "  Boone's 


284  APPEX  DICES 

Creek,"  in  said  county.  I  resided  for  several 
years  in  the  "  Boone  Creek  Civil  District," 
in  Washington  County  (this  some  "  twenty 
years  ago  "),  within  two  miles  of  the  historic 
tree  in  question,  on  which  is  carved,  "  D. 
Boon  cilled  bar  &c." ;  having  visited  and  ex- 
amined the  tree  more  than  once.  The  tree 
is  a  beech,  still  standing,  though  fast  de- 
caying. It  is  located  some  eight  miles  north- 
east of  Jonesboro,  the  county  seat  of  Wash- 
ington, on  the  "  waters  of  Boone's  Creek," 
which  creek  was  named  after  Daniel  Boone, 
and  on  which  (creek)  it  is  certain  Daniel 
Boone  "  camped  "  during  a  winter  or  two. 
The  tree  stands  about  two  miles  from  the 
spring,  where  it  has  always  been  understood 
Boone's  camp  was.  More  than  twenty  years 
ago, I  have  heard  old  gentlemen  (living  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  tree),  who  were  then 
from  fifty  to  seventy  years  old,  assert  that 
the  carving  was  on  the  tree  when  they  were 
boys,  and  that  the  tradition  in  the  commu- 
nity was  that  the  inscription  was  on  the  tree 
when  discovered  by  the  first  permanent  set- 
tlers. The  posture  of  the  tree  is  "  leaning," 
so  that  a  "  bar,"  or  other  animal  could  ascend 
it  without  difficulty. 

While  the  letters  could  be  clearly  traced 
when  I  last  looked  at  them,  still  because  of 
the  expansion  of  the  bark,  it  was  difficult, 
and  I  heard  old  gentlemen  years  ago  remark 
upon  the  changed  appearance  of  the  inscrip- 
tion from  what  it  was  when  they  first  knew 
it. 


APPENDICES.  285 

Boone  certainly  camped  for  a  time  under 
the  tree;  the  creek  is  named  after  him  (has 
always  been  known  as  Boone's  Creek)  ;  the 
Civil  District  is  named  after  him,  and  the 
post-office  also.  True,  the  story  as  to  the 
carving  is  traditionary,  but  a  man  had  as  well 
question  in  that  community  the  authenticity 
of  "  Holy  Writ,"  as  the  fact  that  Boone 
carved  the  inscription  on  that  tree. 
I  am  very  respectfully 

JOHN  ALLISON. 


APPENDIX  D— TO  CHAPTER  VI 

The  following  copy  of  an  original  note  of 
Boone's  was  sent  me  by  Judge  John  N.  Lea : 

July  the  20",  1786.  Sir,  The  Land  has 
Been  Long  Survayd  and  Not  Knowing 
When  the  Money  would  be  Rady  Was  the 
Reason  of  my  not  Returning  the  Works 
however  the  may  be  Returned  when  you 
pleas.  But  I  must  have  Nother  Copy  of  the 
Entry  as  I  have  lost  that  I  had  when  I  lost 
my  plating  instruments  and  only  have  the 
Short  Field  Notes.  Just  the  Corse  Distance 
and  Corner  trees  pray  send  me  Nother  Copy 
that  I  may  know  how  to  give  it  the  proper 
bounderry  agreeable  to  the  Location  and  I 
Will  send  the  plat  to  the  offis  medetly  if  you 
chose  it,  the  expense  is  as  follows 


286  APPENDICES 

Survayer's  fees £9      3    8 

Ragesters  fees 7     14    o 

Chanman 8      o    o 

purvisions  of  the  tower.     200 


£26     17    8 

You  will  also  Send  a  Copy  of  the  agree- 
ment betwixt  Mr.  [ illegible] overton  and 
myself  Where  I  Red  the  warrants. 

I  am,  sir,  your  omble  servant, 

DANIEL  BOONE. 


APPENDIX  E— TO  CHAPTER  VII 

Recently  one  or  two  histories  of  the  times 
and  careers  of  Robertson  and  Sevicr  have 
been  published  by  "  Edmund  Kirke,"  Mr. 
James  R.  Gilmore.  They  are  charmingly 
written,  and  are  of  real  service  as  calling 
attention  to  a  neglected  portion  of  our  his- 
tory and  making  it  interesting.  But  they 
entirely  fail  to  discriminate  between  the 
provinces  of  history  and  fiction.  It  is  great- 
ly to  be  regretted  that  Mr.  Gilmore  did  not 
employ  his  powers  in  writing  an  avowed  his- 
torical novel  treating  of  the  events  he 
discusses ;  such  a  work  from  him  would  have 
a  permanent  value,  like  Robert  L.  Kennedy's 
"  Horseshoe  Robinson."  In  their  present 
fr.rm  his  works  cannot  bo  accepted  even  as 
otTering  material  on  which  to  form  a  judg- 


APPENDICES  287 

mcnt,  except  in  so  far  as  they  contain  repeti- 
tions of  statements  given  by  Ramsey  or  Put- 
nam. I  say  this  with  real  reluctance,  for  my 
relations  with  Mr.  Gilmore  personally  have 
been  pleasant.  I  was  at  the  outset  pre- 
possessed in  favor  of  his  books ;  but  as  soon 
as  I  came  to  study  them  I  found  that  (except 
for  what  was  drawn  from  the  printedTennes- 
see  State  histories)  they  were  extremely  un- 
trustworthy. Oral  tradition  has  a  certain 
value  of  its  own,  if  used  with  great  discretion 
and  intelligence ;  but  it  is  rather  startling  to 
find  any  one  blandly  accepting  as  gospel  al- 
leged oral  traditions  gathered  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  years  after  the  event,  espe- 
cially when  they  relate  to  such  subjects  as  the 
losses  and  numbers  of  Indian  war  parties. 
No  man  with  the  slightest  knowledge  of 
frontiersmen  or  frontier  life  could  commit 
such  a  mistake.  If  anv  one  wishes  to  get 
at  the  value  of  oral  tradition  of  an  Indian 
light  a  century  old.  let  him  go  out  west  and 
collect  the  stories  of  Custer's  battle,  which 
took  place  only  a  dozen  years  ago.  I  think 
1  have  met  or  heard  of  fifty  "  solitary  surviv- 
ors "  of  Custer's  defeat :  and  I  could  collect 
certainly  a  dozen  complete  accounts  of  both 
it  and  Reno's  fight,  each  believed  by  a  goodly 
number  of  men,  and  no  two  relating  the  story 
in  an  even  approximately  similar  fashion. 
Mr.  Gilmore  apparently  accepts  all  such  ac- 
counts indiscriminately,  and  embodies  them 
in  his  narrative  without  even  a  reference  to 
his  authorities.  I  particularize  one  or  two 


288  APPENDICES 

out  of  very  many  instances  in  the  chapters 
dealing  with  the  Cherokee  wars. 

Books  founded  upon  an  indiscriminate  ac- 
ceptance of  any  and  all  such  traditions  or  al- 
leged traditions  are  a  little  absurd,  unless,  as 
already  said,  they  are  avowedly  merely  his- 
toric novels,  when  they  may  he  both  useful 
and  interesting.  I  am  obliged  to  say  with 
genuine  regret,  after  careful  examination  of 
Mr.  Gilmore's  hooks,  that  I  cannot  accept  any 
single  unsupported  statement  they  contain 
as  even  requiring  an  examina'ion  into  its 
probability.  I  would  willingly  pass  them 
by  without  comment,  did  I  not  fear  that  my 
silence  might  be  construed  into  an  acceptance 
of  their  truth.  Moreover,  I  notice  that  some 
writers,  like  the  editors  of  the  "  Cyclopedia 
of  American  Jliography,"  seem  inclined  to 
take  the  volumes  seriously. 


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